I thought everyone knew about the amazing ears of Steve Hoffman, he's legendary for his Mastering Work. He's taught me a ton about listening, and he's amazing to watch. In 15 seconds he can tell you where and by how much your system is non-linear, a true talent and why he's so good at what he does. I brought him into the discussion to demonstrate that the electronics I use was used by him to master. That indicates that these electronics are particularly linear top to bottom. I Love music and since high school I've built my own equipment. Over these many years I've learned a ton about design of all the components in the music chain. This ranges from power supplies, impedance, drivers, amplifiers, speakers. My favorite speakers are two ways, the simpler the better and 1/4 wave resonators with extremely simple crossovers. I use this arrangement with a wonderful ribbon tweeter. There is nothing better for imaging, and clarity than this speaker. Structurally it's superb with all the cross members combining for the long 60-inch port. Always in sound simpler is better, and the same is true in electronics. I've innovated many electronic designs, both in preamps and amps. I've found the best amplifiers in preamps to be subminiature vacuum tubes; these were the last of the vacuum tube designs and were actually designed for artillery shell proximity detonation. As such you can throw them against a wall without damage. So you can imagine the lack of microphonic problems. On top of this the electrons have much less distance to travel and as such the signal is cleaner. Extraordinary voltage regulation is completely necessary both in the preamp and amps. I'm not going to get specific with tube types (spent years and years searching for the finest sounding tubes). So I have a custom subminiature tube preamp, with rock solid voltage regulation, custom power supply with all the tricks I've learned over the years (and there's many of them), and unique feedback design. My amps as you can see in the photo are high power 130 watts of pure highly designed Vacuum tube power. I'm not a SET guy, I find the push pull design superior. It's the application that's the secret. I custom designed my driver, and I drive Russian transmitter tubes though a vintage Altec output transformer. I use my custom all vacuum tube step up and my custom phono amplifier for vinyl. Cables were the weak link in the chain and IMHO opinion are the most important. You can’t get better sound than the cable can deliver no matter how good your electronics are. Cables are the gateway.
