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In the Forum: Melquiades Amplifier
In the Thread: Single-stage Melquiades vs. DHT amps

Post Subject: A Beautiful MindPosted by Paul S on: 12/7/2008

Lots of good information in there, if one has some idea of what it means in terms of sound and how it might be integrated into a system. However, some of the guys who are the smartest with respect to circuit design seem to have no discernable sense of direction with respect to music or the sound they are after with respect to their musical objectives.

The Monkey Circuit is very attractive on paper, with basically nothing but wire and the tubes themselves in the "signal path". Of course, as Thorsten points out, the signal winds up as +/- part of the tank, which basically shifts many of the "usual problems" to the power supply.

It might be nice to use a 45 OT and some sort of comparator for the PS, like the ML2. It might not be necessary to use feedback, IF you could keep the tank quiet apart from input signal, and if it was kept well clear of clipping at all times. IOW, unlimited, perfect DC.

Thorsten refers to Chimera Labs' "Kyra" amp, and its PS, but I like the way the same guys did a "no-cap" "mega-tank" similar to the Monkey with their "Axiom" amp. This one does use (tube) diodes, however, and although they say, "no feedback", it looks to me like there is, in fact, what I call "deniable feedback", where the diodes act +/- as follower/comparitors. I have not heard it, but in any case they ran their listening tests with "FR" Lowther BH, or similar...

Hard to say what any of this stuff would sound like if subjected to more stringent tests.

Only one way to find out...

Best regards,
Paul S

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