Frequently asked questions about general hi-fi stuff including various types of equipment, technical concepts and advice for getting the best results.
No, you should never do this. Japan has a different FM band frequency allocation, spanning 76 – 90 MHz. The Australasian, European and North American FM broadcast band spans 88 – 108 MHz. That means that with a Japanese FM tuner, you’ll see a tiny 2 MHz overlap. You’ll be lucky if you can pick […]
Yes, all electronic equipment needs periodic maintenance. Pretty much everything made by humans needs some form of periodic maintenance or service, and complex electronic equipment containing hundreds of parts, assemblies and mechanical bits, often operating decades past its intended design life, is certainly no exception. Design Life Manufacturer-specified maintenance information is often found in the
Class A is the gold standard and always used where cost is not a factor. Based purely on performance and sonics, the highest-fidelity amplifier design is class A. Speaker sensitivity, combined with your amplifier’s power output, determines the system dynamic range, an important consideration not to be overlooked though. No Compromise Nothing sounds better than
Class AB amplifiers offer many advantages that make them the most commonly found designs in the mainstream hi-fi space. For example, class AB amplifiers offer lower cost and cooler operation than class A designs, with some of the finesse and high fidelity, but with some of the punch and brute force power of class B
Both electronic and mechanical components experience wear and other changes over time. Electronic Components Capacitors are common wearable electronic parts, specifically wet aluminium electrolytic types. Wear rates vary according to type, quality of construction, thermal loading, age and hours of use. I’ve seen capacitors fail after 5 years and older parts that are still perfect
Yes, on some level it is, but I would argue that it can be riskier buying modern, chip and firmware driven equipment that will fail and be obsolete long before gear from the 1970s. As long as you mitigate your risk, buying older hi-fi gear should not be riskier than buying new. In some ways,
A smart question to ask, belt-drive turntables are much cheaper to make. Even small manufacturers can tool up to make a basic belt-drive turntable. You could just about make your own at home and that’s how many small manufacturers start out. Direct-drive turntable manufacture is quite different though. It requires considerably more engineering and capital
Why are there so many new belt-drive turntables? Read More »
