From mon8169@iservicesmail.com Thu Oct 21 09:05:38 2010
Subject:Re: re Speakeasy News

hi Jason,

there are a lot of inaccuracies and wrong statements in your
explanation. I'm electrical enginyeer and maybe It's just your "layman's
explanation", but I think people can deduce false conclusions after
reading your post. Maybe the statements aren't that false/wrong by
themselves, but one after the other leads directly to
misinterpretations.

I do not want to comment again the TRS-Balanced error, but without this
"concept" in the explanation I now do wonder what really the new
Speakeasy product is expected to do. Can someone at Speakeasy please
explain?

thanks
Ramon


-----Mensaje original-----
De: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com] En
nombre de Jason Stanfield
Enviado el: dijous, 21 / octubre / 2010 00:44
Para: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
Asunto: [CWSG] Re: re Speakeasy News



OK .. I needed a little time to wrap my head around it; again, I'm not
an engineer so I don't get all the technical aspects of it, but here's
my best *layman's* explanation; I wish I could explain it better, but
here goes (and sorry for the length; I edited this as much as I could):

It has everything to do with a headphone output being amplified at the
source versus the line-level signal produced by L & R outputs. The
headphone amp isn't terribly powerful - just enough to drive headphone
speakers - but *because* it's amplified, you get dynamic headroom.
Line-level doesn't do that; all it does is produce a "dry" signal.

Now, going from a headphone output into a solid-state device -- standard
keyboard amps, or effects devices such as the Ventilator -- will
demonstrate a slight difference in volume, but not in tone. This is
where tubes come into the picture, specifically the way the tubes in the
Vintage Pre are engineered to handle the larger frequency, dynamic, and
tonal ranges of keyboards (as opposed to the comparably limited response
of tubes designed for use with vocals and guitars).

One further difference needs to be noted here: many standard tube
preamps have solid-state electronics before the tube, so that dynamic
and tonal headroom is cut off, and what is essentially a line-level
signal is being "warmed up" some. Those that have experimented with
standard tube pres on their 'boards sometimes report that the sound is
"stuffy" and "needs EQing". The Vintage Pre is all tube - no solid-state
electronics interfering with the signal.

Now, why the upgrade?

A balanced signal is better than an unbalanced signal; unbalanced cables
are susceptible to interference and can affect tone. A balanced cable -
and corresponding input jack - is going to carry all the tone and
dynamics and nuances without interference. Former Speakeasy Pres use
standard mono jacks; current ones use balanced (TRS) inputs.

So think about your audio chain:

1. The sound your keyboard generates
2. The sound as it leaves your 'board (output)
3. The cable it travels over
4. The input of the receiving device
5. The handling of that signal in the device itself

If you have a great keyboard, but are going from the line outs over an
unbalanced cable into a solid state amp, you're getting blah sound --
from the amplified headphone out (which is TRS) over a balanced cable
into a balanced input and straight into a wide-range tube architecture
allows your keyboard's *complete* tone to be heard. So your 'board
probably sounds great, but you're not hearing all of it - every step in
the unbalanced/solid-state chain is removing something from the signal.
Again, it's like the guitarist with a $3000 well-engineered axe playing
through a practice amp; the subtle qualities of the guitar can't be
heard.

Anything beyond that is math to me, and considering Steve breaks
calculators trying to figure this stuff out, I doubt he'll do much
better; feel free to contact him directly if you need more info.

Jason Stanfield

--- In CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
, James Eaton wrote:
>
> Jason, I'd be really interested to understand the science behind this
- can you elaborate?

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