bluesman

The main reason I chose that Pyle is that it has an embedded preamp with a high impedance mic input. I plug the guitar directly into it and get great jazz tone from my archtop guitars. I’ve tried my Wampler Tumnus Deluxe pedal into it with a Telecaster, and it’s pretty good for blues - but it’ll never displace my blackface Fender amps for that. There is no Toob distributor or reseller in the US. The website has USD prices on it, and shipping to us from Finland was so fast that it blew my mind. It took DHL 72 hours to get my 3 Toobs to me from the time they were delivered to the shipping station. I thought about becoming the US importer / distributor for the line. But we’d have to build enough of a market to justify maintaining a decent stock, and I’d have to buy that inventory for resale. So until US demand grows enough, they’ll have to be purchased directly. The 4 pound 6.5” Metros are about $225 USD right now, and the 7 pound 10” versions are about $350. They’re very light, durable, efficient, and make a lot of great sound from guitars, basses, keyboards etc. I love mine - they’re seriously loud even with my 25 watt Quilter Superblock. With my 250W DV Mark EG250, they’re as loud as my Mesa Boogie Mk 1 was. I have no business connecting with the company. I love them so much I became friendly with the owner / founder / designer. He’s a jazz guitarist like me.

Yes indeedy!! I've now tried half a dozen sub-$200 devices like this and all have been amazingly listenable. And I've been using the $33 100W Pyle "receiver" I reviewed in my recent article on class D as a guitar amplifier on gigs. It sounds so good that both my bandmates and the audience don't believe that the little box is my amp. Interestngly enough, I'm using a pair of fascinating speakers with it (a pair becuase Idon't know if it'll tolerate running without a load and there's no channel balance control). Some of you may find the Toob speakers interesting. They're the brainchild of my friend Markku Pietinen in Finland. They weigh next to nothing with top quaolity neo speakers in them, and they sound amazing. They're housed in sections of heavy corrugated drainage pipe and are very well designed and made. I use one of his 6.5" Metros with a simple class D head for most gigs, but I wanted to see if the $33 Pyle could cut it on a gig so I hooked up both of my 6.5s to it. Here's the Pyle mounted to my 10" Toob.

View Classified 1976 Rogers LS3/5a monitors - original owner, excellent condition I bought these new and have used them in my home for 47 years. These are the legendary original 15 ohm Rogers. Licensed versions are still for sale new today and get rave reviews. But the originals are still the best all around little speakers in the world, and they have a strong following. I've gotten great sound from them using everything from a Marantz 8 and a Mac 75 to a Hafler 500. For the past decade, they've been driven by my Prima Luna Prologue and still sound fantastic. I just don't need or have room for so much stuff any more. The only non-original parts are the output terminals. When these were new, they came with plastic banana jacks in the back - but there was no such thing as an audiophile banana plug in those days, and the ones you could get were too small for decent wire. So I removed the originals and substituted bolts with wing nuts to secure 10 gauge stranded cable to them. I have the originals plus a spare set of new, unused ones that you can put back if you wish. When high quality banana plugs and jacks came along, I added the pictured connectors so I could use them. The way it's set up now, you can use spade lugs, bare wire, or banana plugs - so I think it's the best pf all possible worlds. I don't want to take a chance on damaging the baffle just to remove it so I can put inferior connectors back in. A buyer is welcome to do so if he or she wishes. The cabinets are in excellent shape with no gouges or gross damage of any kind. Price is $2250 plus shipping (US only). Seller bluesman Date 11/04/22 Price 2,250.00 USD Category Speakers  

It's interesting to me how well this discussion now ties into those we had many moons ago about accuracy in reproduction of music. I used as examples the different sounds of archtop and flat top guitars, and we discussed how different pianos of the exact same size, scale etc can sound , eg Baldwin vs Steinway vs Bluthner vs Yamaha etc. Now we introduce the role of the sound reinforcement system, which is basically there for only one reason - to make the sound of the instrument louder. Yes, many guitarists select amplifiers that grossly color or otherwise alter the sound of their instruments. Distortion, phasing effects, delays etc are integral parts of the "sound" of many well known players like Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, etc. But the pure sound of a fine, well made full body guitar like the gold standard Gibson L-5s, Benedettos, and DeAngelicos played by so many of the great jazz guitarists is prized for its beauty - and most of us amplify our "good" guitars only so they'll be heard in the bands and settings in which we play. We want them to sound exactly as they sound unamplified - just louder. Pete Henriksen has created amplifiers that are perfect mates for great guitars with tone no one in his or her right mind would alter. They let the characters and the differences among them shine through whether you play a Campellone, a Benedetto, a '50s Gibson L-5 or Super 400, a Grimes, or a Dale Unger American Archtop guitar. And they sound like themselves at any volume the amplifier will deliver. That ain't easy!! I finally broke down and popped the $1k a Blu 6 costs - and the 6 is the entry level amp from Pete. It's so spectacular that everyone from the band to the audience came up to find out what I'd done to my guitar the first night I brought it to the club for our Thursday night jazz show. It's truly accurate - those of us who know the sounds of the different guitars at this level can more easily tell them apart than from any other amplifier in my 65 years of experience playing the guitar. Adn even though few in the audience or my band can identify the sound of a guitar by make and model, everyone can hear that there are differences - and that's where we left off our discussion of accuracy last time.

Come on now, Jud - we can’t hear no stinking’ specs 🙃 Actually, I’m amazed at the dramatic recent drop in distortion specs on class D amps. I’m very impressed with the SQ of the half dozen I have, the most surprising of which is that little Douk. My main gigging guitar amp is now a Henriksen Blu 6. It’s a 12 pound, 120W class D cube 9” on a side and is as accurate, clean and loud as any traditional amp I’ve ever used. It amplifies my best carved archtops and other acoustics with amazing fidelity and has rapidly become the gold standard for jazz guitarists.

This is also not correct. EMF generated in / by the device is also lost energy and is created wherever there’s electron flow through a conductor. Transformers transform electrical energy into heat because of the resistance of their windings. But the process of inducing current in secondary windings also loses energy to the very magnetic fields that induce those currents. And the eddy currents induced in the core are another measurable nonthermal loss. “Back EMF” is also generated in transformer windings. This is current induced in the primary winding by the secondary, and it reduces efficiency by opposing the forward flow of current in the primary. It is not heat - it is a pure electrical loss. There are also non-thermal energy leaks in semiconductors. Voltage gradients occur between internal components in chips, resulting in current leakage that reduces performance. Some of it does generate a tiny amount of heat, but the performance degradation is caused by deviations in voltages and other operating parameters. The smaller the functional units (eg transistors on a chip” the harder it is to minimize these. That’s one reason why CPUs consume power at idle with no internal activity.

Please read my post again. I said that the efficiency of the power supply is reflected in the delta between power consumption and power delivered to the output stage, not the speakers. A traditional power output stage is definitely less efficient than the power supply that feeds it. Criticism and correction are always welcomed, even if delivered harshly and in haste. But accuracy is really helpful in preparing a response. Thanks for your interest.

Most reference sources disagree with you. Linear power supplies in class A and A/B amps are much less efficient than SMPSs. Just look at the % of power input from the mains that makes it to the output stage. Here’s a typical explanation from Cadence, in which they separate heat loss from other inefficiency for an unclear reason. That heat is simply energy that came in as electrical energy and left as heat energy instead of mechanical energy in the form of sound. “In summary, the disadvantages of linear power supplies are higher heat loss, a larger size, and being less efficient in comparison to the SMPS.The primary issue attributed to the linear power supply’s inadequacy in high-power applications is its size and weight. This stems from its requirement for large transformers and other sizable components in its construction. Aside from size disadvantages are the issues of high heat loss that present during the regulation of high-power loads. Due to its design, high output currents pass through the power transistor and the thermal stress requires heat sinks to dissipate this energy.”

But virtually all class D amps do use SWPSs. It makes little sense to design and buld an efficient amplifier only to power it with a grossly inefficient power supply. The non-sonic advantages of class D (e.g. low weight, little heat generation, and small size) would be offset dramatically by a traditioal linear power supply with serious capacitance and smoothing / regulation that are unnecessary with class D. This explanation from Rotel explains it well: " The Switch Mode Power Supply (SMPS) is not what makes these "switching" amplifiers. As just described, the amplification stage is a high speed switching circuit and what defines this design as Class D. A Class D amp could, in fact, use a conventional power supply; and a linear amp could use a SMPS. A traditional power supply stores large amounts of energy, but wastes "excess" energy not demanded by the load in the process. An SMPS matches output to real-time requirements, supplying only the power required by the load, as a result operating very efficiently. The analogy is a water tank (linear supply), which is always being refilled and spills over if demand is insufficient; compared to an endless series of buckets (SMPS), which can be slowed down or sped up as required. The SMPS in our Class D amps reflects the fact that the Class D amplification circuit does not require the massive energy storage of a linear power amp, so the more efficient/compact SMPS is a better choice."

True dat! But remember that class D amps do not use linear power supplies - so they don't need serious capacitors in there. There's no storehouse of instant power for transients and peaks, which makes them somewhat compressed when pushed to their limits. The RMS output wattage is not much below the peak output they can squeeze out for the cannons in the 1812.

The ST-01 has no headphone out. There are many very nice inexpensive headphone amps that do a wonderful job, in my opinion. SMSL makes a few - I like the AD18, especially at the price. As we begin to appreciate these things, their prices are rising rapidly. I now see SMSL units for $400+ USD. I’m now looking for new alternative sources around the world for great value.

I’m just a tired old hedonist. All ya gotta do is play me some music, pour me a wee dram, and feed me. If I forget why I’m having a great time, it’s OK - I’m still having a great time! 😃

I agree that there are many objective parameters to help guide the purchase, use, and enjoyment of audio equpiment and many other things. But I have a bit of difficulty with the idea that any of them should supersede the subjective perception of the user. The main matter of importance to me is enjoyment / fuilfillment / satisfaction / etc. Specs, reviews, recommendations etc mean nothing if I don't like the performance I'm getting. And if I'm happy, neither outside opinions nor cost will change it. On the other hand, I think we all need to educate ourselves continually by experiencing what others believe to be greatness. Both objective parameters and subjective impressions from others should cause us all to find and experience everything we can. By trying everything, I've discovered a lot of wonderful stuff and experiences I either didn't know existed or might have otherwise dismissed because of everything from my own biases to bad press. We can all up our games if we keep open minds and seek new experiences. But if I like something, I like it even if someone has pulled the wool over my poor old ears 😀

Stellar!! I’d just politely suggest changing the last sentence and the thinking it expresses. In today’s world, only performance sets the bar. Price reflects the cost of goods sold and the expected returns on investment of the designers, manufacturers, vendors, shareholders etc. But it’s no longer a strict guide to objective quality. Thankfully, even the crustiest audiophiles are starting to listen with their ears alone 😀

That’s why I was so amazed at the quality of reproduction of the cymbals in particular and the entire drum kit. I sit directly in front of the drummer between the hi-hat and crash on my left and the ride on my right. So I’m very very familiar with their sound. I use good IEMs for blues shows (loud) and none for quieter jazz - so I know them acoustically and through a very good reproduction system. The Douk is surprisingly realistic top to bottom, and it makes a believable 50+ WPC into 8 Ohms. My little TASCAM recorder does a stellar job. But it cost less than $200, so the two mics in it probably don’t have Neumann trembling. So there are “upstream flaws” for sure. Class D won’t remove them, but the best examples no longer magnify them either.