11
XP-15 Owner’s Manual
Capacitive loading will not affect moving coil cartridges to the same
extent that capacitive loading affects moving coil cartridges but
there may be some small benefit to adjusting this parameter once the
resistive loading is optimal.
Once you have found the optimal setting, take the time to record
those setting so that should the need ever arrive, you can replicate
your personal settings with little effort. Of course when you change
either cartridge or wires between the cartridge and pre-amp you may
need to revisit your selected settings.
For a very long time there has been faith in the technical community
that eventually some objective analysis would reconcile critical
listeners subjective experience with a repeatable laboratory
measurement protocol. Perhaps this will occur, but in the meantime
audiophiles largely reject bench specifications as an indicator of
audio quality. This is appropriate; the appreciation of audio is a
completely subjective human experience. We should not more let
the numbers define audio quality than we would let chemical analysis
be the ultimate arbiter of fine wines. Measurements are certainly
critical, they can and do provide a measure of insight, but are no
substitute for human judgment of that which is pleasant.
As in art, classic audio components are the results of individual
and collective efforts that reflect a coherent underlying goal and
philosophy. If successful, they make both a subjective and objective
statement of quality, which is meant to illicit appreciation in the final
product. It is essential that that the circuitry of an audio component
reflects a philosophy which addresses the subjective nature of its
performance first and foremost.
Lacking the ability to completely characterize performance in an
objective manner, we should take a step back from the resulting
waveform and take into account the process by which it has been
achieved. The history of what has been done to the music is
important and must be considered a part of the result. Everything
that has been done to the signal is embedded in that signal, however
subtly.
Experience correlating what sounds good to knowledge of
component design yields some general guidelines as to what will
sound good and what will not sound good in real life.
1) Simplicity and a minimum number of components is a key
element, and is well reflected in the quality of better tube
designs. The fewer pieces in series with the signal path, the better.
Design Comments
