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In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: Crossover Design
Post Subject: Why design system with such large constraints?Posted by scooter on: 1/8/2012
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 Kerry Brown wrote:


Jorge,

You're quite welcome to visit any time you are in the SF Bay Area.
....


The little aluminum box on the upper shelf with the blue LED is a NuFrorce mono amp, one of two. 


The DEQX HDP3, one of two, is the black box with yellow and blue LEDs is on the shelf below.
...

Below that is my Nuforce 7-channel HT amp - 6 channels power the low bass horns, upper bass horns and the tweeters - the multi-channel amp is fitted with exactly the same Ref v3Vse circuit boards as the 'Class D' NuForce mono blocks - the only difference is less capacitance in the PS. ...
Hi - Thanks for taking the  time to post more details on your set up and photos. This is a good learning process for everyone so please take any comments as free debate and not a personal critique. Perhaps others will have macro level comments. I will note two areas I have spent a lot of time battling. You may not be happy with my personal observations but I think addressing them are logical steps forward:

Maybe once you are happy with the fundamentals of your system, which the DEQX can help with, you consider a more traditional approach.

1. Digital processing. I know you are heavily invested in that box and it provides some convenient features. The trade off is that you are settling major constraints that you can not overcome. Digital processing just kills sound in unrecoverable ways. For example, remember most of the music you are listening to has already suffered digital processing, perhaps several rounds of it. Processing a second (third...) time causes massive problems from a mathematical perspective. Effectively you are taking a compromised source assembled with from sample data points and then doing that again. Lots of data is lost forever and new data extrapolation has varying degrees of error. A simple sine wave is easy to reproduce with a limited number of sample points. Music is not. There are other technical problems but I suspect this is among the most insidious.  

2. "Class D" Type amps are an interesting beast. I have listened to a lot of them and like some of the conceptial ideas. Unfortunately I have not ever heard a decent sounding one. Like the DEQX, "Class D" sets major technical constraints on your system that limit performance significantly.

Stupidly, I purchased some Linn "Class D" amps from a distributor for a small room once. They looked great, were very portable, multi-voltage, and sounded just terrible. However, I had one very interesting observation living the "Class D;" plugged directly into the wall socket, they always sounded the same, regardless of day or time of day. That is the only audio gear I have ever encountered that was so consistent. 

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