Don't know who this guy is, but he took some photos at CES2004 and has some pretty funny captions to go with them. It's also a good look into some of the snake oil being peddled out there...there's a set of monoblock amps being sold at the show for an "introductory" price of like $27,000! Cripes, I wonder what the STANDARD price is going to be?!

http://www.collinsaudio.com/ces_2004/

 

That second photo was of a turn table? At first I honestly thought it was a cappuccino machine.

 

Just goes to show you waht some people are willing to spend (read, waste) their money on. Players of that type usually start at around $10k and go up form there...I've seen them as high as $100k, and I'm sure there are more expensive versions out there. Amusing what people will do, considering the Earth shaking all of the time, the local wind turbulence making the needle jump all over the place, etc...especially considering the SNR of a standard record is not much more than 60dB

There's also some good shots of cables, metal/wood pedestals people put them on so the floor/carpet won't "color" the sound etc.

 

Some cool stuff. Those giant horn speakers must be awesome.

Now if someone can take a minute....

Please explain to me what a "tube" amp is, and how it differs from the regular reciever amps we "normal" people buy.

 

The typical amp on the shelves today are made form solid state components (silicon chips), whereas the tube amps have their amplification performed by...well, tubes. The first computers were tube-based, but we eventually learned to miniturize the action of a tube and ICs were born. Tube amps continue to hang around for two main reasons: 1) There is a small group of people who prefer the sound of a tube to solid-state as it gives the sound a more "warm" feeling (essentially, tubes merely provide a type of distortion that is more ear-pleasing to some than a solid state piece does), and 2) There is a larger group of people who mistake this more ear-pleasing distortion for NO distortion, and therefore swear solid state equipment is the anti-Christ and tubes are the best thing since sliced bread. Only group #1 is using their 6th sense...common sense.

 

Gotcha....but by the word "tube" its not like a pipe.....what exactly is it??? Based on some of those photos, they look like lightbulbs.

 

all in all, funny stuff Mac. it is amazing what happens when people forget the law of diminishing returns. eventually, your exponential growth in price goes to infinity and your inverse exponetial gains decline to 0.

some of that stuff though is really just designed to be art though... visually appealing and still sound as good as possible. some of those turntables are a good example that...


regarding tube amps: Mac's right... and i'm one of the members of group 1. well, at least i like the sound... but never enough to spend the money...

however, tube amps also have one other advantage that i seem to recall... tubes amps often have low power levels, but i seem to recall they have very very high dynamic range capabilities.

if nothing else, they generally make for good preamps.

 

Tube amps have very high power levels (the power they use, not necessarily the power they amplify at), owing mostly to the heating elements...you gotta crank a lot of power through the grid before those electrons start to travel.



NFR, when turned on, tubes look very much like dim lightbulbs, and their construction is somwhat similar. Take an incandescent lightbulb and add in two extra elements (called the "grid" and "plate") to the standard filament (the "heater"). The heater acts as a source of electrons that flow through the vacuum of the tube. The electrons are pulled toward the plate as long as it has a higher positive potential than the heater (i.e., more positive voltage). The grids voltage determines the current throug the plate.

Essentially, you have a transistor under glass. Some people buy tube amps merely for the asthetic value...they make a nice warm glow and look pretty slick when wrapped in a chromed case that reflects the light or have grills that let the light escape.

 

Thank You!

 

correct... sorry, i was referring to amplifier output power not power consumption...