OPTIMIZING YOUR SOUND SYSTEM
This section is full of little hints that may help you get the most out of your stereo - and it may not cost
anything or cost very little. Probably, you know most of this, but hopefully some of it may be new or refresh your
memory or just be refreshing reading in a manual.
A very important factor is your speakers. Hopefully you have good speakers and they are appropriate for this
integrated amplifier. What is appropriate? Well, with 50 watt of tube power per side and probably a limited budget
we would hope for reasonably efficient speakers so that the system will get loud enough for the music you listen
to. The “spec” to look for is “sensitivity” or “efficiency”. A speaker that is 95 dB efficient will easily get as loud
with these 50 watts as 85 db speakers with 150 watts. “85” will do if you only listen to folk or chamber music.
Usually you pay about the same for high sensitivity speakers but in amplifiers more watts is more $. By the way,
many reviewers confirm that 50 tube watts is similar to 100 solid state watts. If you are buying speakers, it is wis-
est to carefully listen to them before buying. You will most likely like them longer if they tend to sound natural and
real rather than over-emphasized in some area. In other words, think “accurate reproduction”, not “numbers” and
“hype”.
The price of speakers is often directly related to the low frequency response. Great lows generally require
deep pockets and plenty of power. Thanks to “home theatre” there are a lot of powered subwoofers available that
won’t drain your resources. Get one that connects to speaker outputs (or the SUB OUT RCA jacks on your Stingray
II) so that it follows your input selection and volume control. This makes connecting them pretty easy.
There are some very interesting speaker tricks. Most people just place them wherever it is convenient. Spouse
approval is a real factor. We suggest that you experiment with speaker placement, then when they sound 100%
better you bring in the spouse and demonstrate the difference. They should be able to hear the improvement and
may totally agree with your choice. You should aim for equal distances between your listening position to each
speaker and from speaker to speaker. The ideal is an “equilateral triangle”. Try to get the speakers off the floor,
and away from the walls (both side and back). The angle of the tweeter or speaker front panel to your face is also
critical and experiment with that too. You should be getting a smooth frequency response so that highs and lows are
balanced and mids not too prominent or distant. It should simply sound “natural”. When we buy color TVs the first
thing most of us relate to is flesh tones because it is something we all relate to and know when they are right. The
equivalent thing in audio is vocal tone. We have evolved amazing discrimination for the varieties of human voice
and much less for other instruments. Use a few well recorded CDs with vocals and adjust the speakers to get the
most natural voices. If you are lucky, you will end up with a system that creates a 3D picture of the music that not
only has left/right width but a solid distinct center. It should also make some sounds seem in front of the speakers
and some behind. We have heard some systems with great components even give an illusion of the height of the
individual musicians. Most rooms are longer in one dimension. Some systems sound best with the speakers across
the short dimension and the listening position part way back but not right at the back wall. Some systems are better
across the long dimension. The only way to find out is to try.
If you are getting this amazing imaging and soundstage, you may be interested to know why you suddenly
have it now that you have the Stingray II. These are very audible effects that seem to be beyond normal measure-
ment technique or textbook electronic theory. This effect is directly related to the amount of negative feedback used
in a design. The less feedback the greater the imaging. In transistor amplifiers it has been common practice to use
more than 80 dB of negative feedback. Conventional designs need it because transistors are not particularly linear
devices and it forces the circuit to get low distortion figures as well as very high damping factors. Tubes are much
more linear and inherently low distortion. Tube amplifier designs use far less negative feedback (less than 20 dB) as
a result . We speculate that the negative feedback may have a negative effect on transient accuracy. It is reasonably
documented that the feedback does reduce the lower order harmonics in distortion but can raise higher order har-
monics that are more audible. Feedback also makes the transition from clean to clipping very abrupt and abundant
with high order harmonics. The best audio devices always seem to be simple & aesthetically balanced, with form
following function.
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Summary of Contents for Stingray II
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