design parameters etc/good sound

[eric barbour]

> I think (flamesuit ON) very few of the people in the world can hear the
> distortion in an audio system unless it is GROSS.  Usually the speakers are far
> worse than anything else in the audio path! 

True--most people don't listen to music very carefully
anyway--they're usually only looking for a cheap
reproducer. This has been true since the first Edison
phonograph appeared.

IMO the problem started in the 1960s, with early solid-state
hi-fi that truly sounded like crap. People with good ears
hated the stuff--but the electronics industry and its pundits
denied that there was any problem. Len Feldman, Julian Hirsch, 
and the staff of Consumer Reports were major pushers of bad
solid-state audio equipment. It took TEN YEARS before these
"experts" admitted there could be a problem. And to this day,
crappy transistor audio equipment (some of it quite expensive) 
is still being marketed, and still being reviewed favorably in
various mass-market magazines. And people STILL argue insanely
about sound quality. Now that high-end audio is an established
billion-dollar industry, isn't it about time for some egos to 
deflate themselves.....on both sides?

And I won't even discuss the assholes who love to rant about
the "infallible" (often misapplied) ABX listening test......
To summarize: I personally hope there's a special corner of hell 
ready for Tom Nousaine and David Clark.

> And those few 'audiophiles'  (think
> pedophile....necrophile...) that "could" hear the difference are probably so old
> they cant hear over 12-15KHz anyway.

Yep. Speaking as a person VERY experienced with audiophiles,
I have very little respect for most of them. They are just
as subject to fads and hype as the average joe. 
More so, probably---audiophiles are always middle-aged 
men (boys) in the throes of mid-life crises.

Go look at the "Joelist" for some examples of man-boys.
http://rabi.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/~reese/joelist/

There is good-sounding solid-state equipment. 
Just not enough of it....you still have to spend some
$ to get the best sound. 

Opamps have gotten really good recently, 
but STILL the best studio mic preamps, limiters
etc. are always based on class-A low-feedback designs, 
made of either tubes or of good-quality discrete
transistors.

Here's a free tip: want a good-sounding home hifi
for very little money? Get an early-1970s Pioneer
or Marantz receiver, or separates. These models used no
op-amps (which had abominable performance at the time)--
all class-A circuits, conservatively designed, using
moderate feedback and GOOD bipolar devices. The kind of
high-speed alloy-junction devices 
(sealed in hermetic metal cans) that you can't even 
buy anymore. That's why such equipment is getting scarce--
when it blows up, it usually doesn't get fixed, because
most of the transistors and special biasing diodes are not 
available anymore....