Everything needs to be built to a price point. The other things we could do with the money on the DS for better sound outweighed having bipolar supplies. The biggest downside of bipolar supplies in the DS would have been that more of the guts of the PWD would have had to be replaced for a DS upgrade. As it turned out we replaced the PWD’s power supply board anyway, but that option didn’t seem open earlier in the design process. In hindsight it would have been nice to raise the output level of the DS with a new PS board, but I still don’t think we’d have done a bipolar supply.
Everything is a balancing act. With the TSS we are willing to put in features that have a smaller bang for the buck than we could in the DS or DS Jr.
Could you please elaborate the technical outcome? What have we lost on the DS not using a bipolar output supply? Or the other way round, what gain did it bring for the TSS?
The transformer takes care of level shifting on the output so the output doesn’t “care” about bipolar supplies or not.
The level switching at the digital switches matters in a small way: the closer the digital input signal is to the middle of the analog supplies the better for common mode noise rejection, etc. Raising the output level in the TSS would mean the digital input would have been even more offset from the middle than in the DS. Doing non symmetrical power supplies (e.g. +7V/-3V instead of +/- 5V) was an option but having power transformers with matched output windings was also important… Everything interacts in a holistic design.
Ted, regarding the compromise with the DS output level due to the power supply and PWT upgrade…do you expect a degradation of the DS’ performance in case a Bridge III due to the necessary higher processing power draws more power from the supply and gets hotter?
Nope, there are three separate digital supplies and an analog supply in the DS, (not as separate as one might like, but enough that potential changes in the Bridge supply use shouldn’t be a problem.)
Very good point. I spent 90 minutes on a coffee forum a while back (for grinder research) and read Baristaphiles spouting forth about the exact number of milligrams of coffee, plus one bean, and then the exact tamper pressure required, for the perfect cup. Complete Total BS. No coffee measurements for me, but no doubt the objective vs subjective barista argument rages on.
You cannot always LISTEN and audition items these days
Even auditioning and listening rooms vary greatly and unless you can compare within the same room back to back it’s not ideal
Listening is subjective, measurement if done right is objective
Even if room and other equipment is fixed, one item may sound better than another due to the room/speaker/setup there!
So, bottom line, ONLY way to audition and pick what’s best is to LISTEN to them in YOUR ROOM and compare various products back to back… that’s NOT possible in majority of the cases. Hence, many audiophile jump from one equipment to another to another… that’s why IF we had a good measurement system that’s objective and could potentially provide a measurement of the sound quality it could make it easier for buyers. I don’t think we have such measurement yet, but it’s a good discussion to have.
Plus the fact that if you don´t need preamp for it´s extra inputs, but only for obtaining better SQ,you need to spend roughly 10K for it. For example BHK pre plus good power cord plus good interconnects and there you are. I just got a much bigger and better ( I think ) improvement for free,it´s called WINDOM.
Any good coffee bean you recommend that’s on Amazon? I have an automatic espresso machine, so don’t have much control, BUT beans quality makes a massive difference.
Actually, self-proclaimed master reviewer, Borat from CSR (Coffee Science Review) says that coffee measures very poorly and therefore is complete garbage. He says Maxwell House measures perfectly so it’s much much better coffee. Which makes a lot of sense seeing how it is good to the last drop. He also says that deciding which coffee you prefer based on taste is a waste of time if the coffee measures poorly. At that point you’re just playing into the hands of the subjectivist coffee con men. They’re just peddling their “magic beans”. Don’t fall for it!
No need for these coffeeophile snake oil coffees. I can’t taste any difference between International Roast and all these high-highfalutin blends. Coffee Engineering proves that there can’t be any difference between coffees.
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