Speaker Cables — Nelson Pass / 1980

AUDIOPHILES RECENTLY BEGAN re-examining the performance of every link in the audio playback chain, and before long their attention turned to the lowly loudspeaker cable. In response to demand, a number of companies are producing or distributing new and exotic cables claimed to improve audio power transmission from amplifier to speaker. Pointing to lower resistance and inductance, proponents of the newer cables insist they sound significantly better ("better than an expander!"); however, the subject is controversial, and some hi-fi notables claim performance increase is negligible and the higher capacitance of some new cables can cause amplifier instability and damage.1-4 Neither… More...

Build a MOSFET Citation 12 — Nelson Pass / 1981

Audio Amateur has published a number of projects modifying popular kits, usually Dynaco's. Obviously it is much less expensive to use the chassis and power supply, pots, connectors, switches, PC boards, and heat sinks that can be had for the price of a kit than to buy the components individually or have them made. Creating a one-off copy commercially typically costs as much as making 10 copies of the same item, because the dominant costs are design and set-up time which do not increase with quantity. Small wonder then that most technicians and designers who write for this and similar… More...