audio-talk

I hope that helps somebody out there. If it offends anyones pet ideas that wasn't my goal. It was to share an experience with open minded people.

Thats ok, and I don't see why anyone would think anyone was or would be offended, but my point is I am trying to understand why the Panasonic sounds better, not questioning that it does. And to help know that I was interested in knowing what else was in use with the F5 to make it work like the A500, ie, it has a volume control, the F5 doesn't.

Just interested in hearing one Paul, never have, and I remember the hype about these when they came out.

Nick wrote:I have repaired one of those, they are good amps, the DC coupling means that if you look at it the wrong way it (a big transient will do it) it will kill its output transistors.

Yeah... I have a couple of spare sets of NOS output trannies for mine just in case, but never needed them so far in the 4 years of my usage.

another point to consider is that the amps and to a lesser degree the systems us lot listen to on a daily basis are far removed from the commercial equipment we all started out with. i havent listened to a 'conventional' system at home in ten years. for others among us i suspect this will be alot longer.
all our systems are tailored to ourselves whether we think they are or not. how many times have we heard something we dont like in our amp, speakers ect so gone on a quest to change it. the point is, that whether a piece of equipment is commercial, sand or valve is immaterial, sometime somewhere we will probably hear something that works very well in our system. and synergy is probably the reason. i would bet that the little rotel ra 212 i loved would sound different in the system i have now. wether i would like it or not i will never know. i recently did some repairs on a little creek cas4040 for a friend and thought it was bloody awful when i tested it. when i took it back to him and heard it there on the end of his mission 770 somethings with his mf xray cd player it wasnt and it worked.

Nick wrote: the A500, ie, it has a volume control, the F5 doesn't.

Yes I shall be revealing pictures after they upload.

But the volume control isn't the extra help it gets. the picture of it reveals a nasty little thing.

In the AB test I had the digital volume the same for each amp and equalised with the pioneer's volume control. The pioneer is a lot more sensetive.

It is probably the case that the pass amp needs a preamp and the panasonic doesn't. That may be making one of the differences. The capabilities to handle input's.

I was shamed into cleaning it, but needed a smaller stiffer brush. this is what I managed with a flue brush and a compressed air gun.













I suppose there are some OK components in there but I wouldn't call them state of the art. Just shows what crap people expect to see in a solid state amp these days, if they call these quality components.

A pair of those power supply caps badged Denon for £17 on eBay.

So not worth a fortune for it's components.

A few hours later Diana speaks again, unknowing that she is being used as an opinion.

"is that the one you got from Ian? because it's quite a good sound isn't it?" pause "but it's not as good as the ones you make, I'd better just say that."

Paul Barker wrote: "is that the one you got from Ian? because it's quite a good sound isn't it?" pause "but it's not as good as the ones you make, I'd better just say that."

I had a Pioneer A400 in the nineties, good but always thought the top end was a bit harsh, sounding a bit like modern compressed CDs sometimes. Listened to an A400GTE which was better then in early noughties I bought a Pioneer A300R Precision amp which had a more refined top end but retained all the positive aspects of the A400's performance IMHO. Still doing sterling service in my 2nd system along with its stablemate the 505 Precision CD player. The A400 was unusual in having a "dual-mono" vol pot that acted as a balance control too.

Peter R wrote:The A400 was unusual in having a "dual-mono" vol pot that acted as a balance control too.

Thanks, I just learned from that statement. Hold the back still and twiddle the front. Wouldn't have thought to try that.

Peter R wrote: The A400 was unusual in having a "dual-mono" vol pot that acted as a balance control too.

My QED A-240 cd is the same.

Bought an A400 service manual in the late 90's too when I was investigating modding it (but the Precision amp negated the need). Gave it away to someone years ago but I bet they're still available on the net.