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- Newsgroups: rec.audio
- Path: sparky!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!csn!news.den.mmc.com!news
- From: (CJ Rabe, III)
- Subject: Re: Class A/B/whatever... What does it mean?
- Message-ID: <1992Jul21.185058.21800@den.mmc.com>
- Sender: news@den.mmc.com (News)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: 129.243.49.79
- Organization: Martin Marietta Astronautics, Denver
- References: <JMD.92Jul14112703@ocelot.bear.com> <1992Jul14.170113.29706@microunity.com> <1992Jul17.143248.5738@porthos.cc.bellcore.com> <JMD.92Jul21101817@ocelot.bear.com>
- Distribution: usa
- Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 18:50:58 GMT
- Lines: 60
-
- In article <JMD.92Jul21101817@ocelot.bear.com>, jmd@bear.com (Josh Diamond) writes:
- >
- >
- > It seems that my question (Class A/B/whatever... What does it mean?)
- > has sparked some hearty debate...
- >
- > In article <1992Jul17.143248.5738@porthos.cc.bellcore.com> gfl@hera.uucp (22402-lenahan) writes:
- > >The original question:
- > >>> What are the specific differences between class A/B/whatever
- > >>> audio components?
- > >The original answer:
- > [deleted for brevity]
- >
- > >Now aside from the babble about complementary tubes (????)!,
- > >This is way beyond the interest of someone who doesn't understand
- > >the definition of class A, AB, B, etc.
- >
-
- > The particular passage in mind was in
- > a quote from "Stereophile" which appeared in a sales brochure for
- > Kinergetics Research equipment (quoted from memory):
- >
- > "the first CD-player to break the Class-A boundary"
-
- In this context class-A is meaningless. It is a subjective label used
- by the reviewer.
- >
- >Stuff deleted
- >
- > So, let the technical explanations (and debate) continue. I would
- > personally like to know how class A vs. B vs. AB fits together with
- > Tube vs. Transistor. Grant states that the comment in the original
- > response about "complementary tubes" is babble. Why is this not
- > valid?
-
- Grant could be a bit more diplomatic. Tubes are not complimentary as
- transistors are, ie there is no PNP/NPN relationship with tubes. Push
- pull operation is achieved by inverting half of the output signal in the
- output transformer. Thats how you can get a sine wave to swing negative
- with only a positive power supply.
- >
- > And please, lets remember that there are many people out there who
- > possess some understanding of electronics, but are beginners in audio
- > electronics. The fact that someone does not yet know the terminology
- > does NOT indicate that they are incapable of understanding a good,
- > detailed, explanation.
-
- Very true. The technocrats who make their living selling and publishing
- reviews of this stuff depend on an uninformed coustomer base. Seldom do
- you find a salesman whose knowledge extends beyond a few over worked buzz
- words, especially in the high end shops. If you want to increase your
- knowledge in this arena, may I suggest you toss your Stereophile into the
- bottom of the bird cage, where it belongs, and subscribe to the Audio Amateur
- or Glass Audio. In addition to publishing some *VERY GOOD* construction
- articles, they also have excellent technical treatises on how the stuff works.
-
- >
- CJ Rabe
-
-
-