Thursday, March 13, 2014

PVC Pipe Nightmares

Uhh?! What is going, first he told us how cool those pipe are, and now nightmares?! What is going on?!
Very simple, when pushing one inferior variable to the best possible, another one will take the place of being the disturbing one... the one that spoils all the fun and excitement.
Well, this time, it was the stereo that was driving the fun, as I thought.
Although I still believe this is a very nice device, I have to report that this device creates a hizzzzzz under "normal"circumstances. As soon as any of the buttons is tampered with, the hizzz is absent, just to return after a few seconds... VERY ANNOYING!

This "feature" was audible only with my PVC Voigt pipe-type speakers. What do we learn from this?!
  • When using a cheap stereo, use the speakers supplied, so you don't hear the deficiencies!
  • When hooking up a cheap stereo to some decent sound converters, you may be able to hear the defects the respective sound converter has.
  • Dimensions given by your sound-Guru are relative... does a 1.5m Voigt pipe sound better than a 2+m Voigt pipe?! Probably not... shorter pipe, less bass..
Am I happy with my more than 2m long Voigt pipes driven by 2" drivers? Yes I am! I think those are the most amazing cheap speakers I ever listened to!

Remedy for the hizzzzzz problem: build a dedicated AMP (opamps/LM368) in a classical way...