E
ecc83
Well-known member
Amen to that Rich! I am not remotely qualified to judge on these matters, mutton for one thing, but the electronics tech in me says that after a certain point of component quality, there is no increase in sound quality. Yes, gold contacts will not tarnish (but they wear out quicker than nickel) but they cannot make the sound better... at least by any technical mechanism I am aware of?
The only remotely scientific comparison of high end and medium priced mic pres I know of was done by Sound on Sound magazine some years ago and they posted the clips blind and invited peeps to rate them. The result was pure chance, i.e. the top end pres were not picked out. N.B. the pre amps were deliberately kept well below any distortion level. As has been said, some pres "have a sound" which many like but even though Neve gear e.g. is very well built, like HP sauce, great on a bacon butty but you don't want it on your fillet steak (unless you are a Philistine!) But at least you can scrape most of the sauce off. Once "Neve'd" you are stuck with it!
Sweetbeat's* Studer is a wonder of its age but I suspect it is the opposite of Neve in that it has a very clean, transparent signal path?
But I could well be wrong and this super high end gear does somehow contain "magic" and if so I think it behoves the owners to try to pin it down so us mere mortals might share? But my 60 years of messing with components tells me what most "in the industry" say? There is no magic, caps are caps and resistors resistors SO LONG as you use the right part in the right place and understand how it works. Otherwise, IMHO we are heading into Russ Andrews country.
*Luv you man but could you paragraph? Just a bit, this right eye is 80 fekking years old!
Dave.
