Introduce Yourselves

[Shevans]

Welcome Jez, to a Marco free zone :D

[Jez Arkless]

Welcome Jez, to a Marco free zone :D

Thanks. I see from the above post from Daniel Quinn that my views are probably as unwelcome here as elsewhere... Marco's censorship (and insistence that he was right about everything... even electronic engineering... me being an EE and him a picture framer!) was the main reason I provoked him into banning me....
A quick forum search here (which I am now able to do having joined) shows I have been much maligned here....
I'm starting to feel like a doctor who is finding that every medical forum is populated by those who believe only in healing crystals and homoeopathy and don't want to know about real medicine
BTW I don't see myself as an objectivist! I totally agree that amps sound different, phono stages much more so, and that speakers and cartridges sound VERY different. I also spend a lot of time on listening tests when fine tuning my stuff. Where this subjectivism ends for me is with things like mains cables, audio fuses, special distribution blocks, green pens, cable lifters etc etc ad nauseam...... I'm sure many are aware of my views on this but I just wanted to set things straight to those who say I'm an objectivist who relies totally on measurements and thinks all amps sound the same.... far from it!!

[zebbo]

Welcome Jez
As I understand it, if you're a one man band dealing direct then you are welcome to post about your own gear but I guess the Doc might possibly give you your own room and I'm not sure how much "hard sell" would be allowed. The Doc will confirm no doubt. Don't worry about being competition for NVA, there isn't any!

[Jez Arkless]

Welcome Jez
As I understand it, if you're a one man band dealing direct then you are welcome to post about your own gear but I guess the Doc might possibly give you your own room and I'm not sure how much "hard sell" would be allowed. The Doc will confirm no doubt. Don't worry about being competition for NVA, there isn't any!

I think, with hindsight, I'll probably remain firmly in the background here .... I was told about this site by another ex AOS refugee but with "the clue being in the name" of this site I rather suspect that my opinions would not be welcome.... Especially when someone asks about lets say phono stages and gets loads of recommendation for NVA units followed by me piping up to point out that I also manufacture one which may interest them!! I guess Mr Dunn would quite reasonably have a problem with that!! I would if I was in his position....

[SteveTheShadow]

I wouldn't worry Jez. I have discussed the technical aspects of my fully balanced push pull valve amps with the Doc on here, though I'm not a manufacturer, just an enthusaiastic DIY'er.

I got pissed off when the nameless one was trying to hard-sell the virtues of neat wiring looms in amps; trying to say that amp A had to be better than amp B because it had the neater wiring. This, we know is complete claptrap. There are ways to build neat interiors without lacing wires into high capacitance looms and risking stray RF pickup, which will cause anything from spurious noises to a grittiness in the treble.

What gets me is this business of admiring designers who push the limits. How on earth do you know if some designer is pushing the limits of anything, if you know naff all about the theory and practice behind what said designer is doing.
All you have is the designer's say-so or more likely his shills.

There are sound engineering reasons why one power supply, for example sounds different to another, and sound science behind cables burning in, that Doc and plenty of other people have talked about. Only madmen believe in fairy dust. Only madmen will without question accept what some shill tells them and then try preaching it as gospel. Down that road lies constant box swapping and spending on the latest huge improvement.

I don't go on AoS and have now removed the bookmark from my browsers so I don't get tempted. The treatment Ali got has made the decision for me.
I post most of my stuff on Audio-Talk, where us DIYers can build and report on our projects, have them peer reviewed without having to justify every blasted resistor. I'm sort of new here and get a bit wary about posting, but I'm starting to relax a bit. The Doc has not bitten my head off so my post count might go up, slowly.

[applemarc]

Hi Jez

When we buy kit from the Doc we can return if we don’t like it so if you offer the same people can try your and the Doc’s and make their own mind up. Most of us here have different front ends and speakers but we have a lot of NVA amps and cable. I tried several Phono amps before buying my NVA

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Hi I'm Jez Arkless, proprietor of Arkless Electronics and seeker of forum sanctuary after being banned from the wam a year ago for no good reason (I was told to remove the link to my website if I wanted to continue posting due to having not yet paid my trade account fee.... so I removed it as asked and re-joined a discussion on Quad ESL's..... only to be told I'm banned for life two posts later!). Now banned for life from AOS for disagreeing with Marco
Lets see how long I last here.....
Many will know me from AOS and pfm and will know I have rather robust views over all things FOO!

If I am interpreting the forum policy correctly then it appears I actually am allowed to plug my products and services as I am a one man band with no middlemen etc? If that is so then it is generous of the dr to allow this as I have rival products for his own.... as well as a repair service. I'll wait to have this confirmed by a moderator before doing so though.

Jez.

PM Slinger or terrybooth for your own room, and only promote or talk about your products there.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Welcome Jez
As I understand it, if you're a one man band dealing direct then you are welcome to post about your own gear but I guess the Doc might possibly give you your own room and I'm not sure how much "hard sell" would be allowed. The Doc will confirm no doubt. Don't worry about being competition for NVA, there isn't any!

I think, with hindsight, I'll probably remain firmly in the background here .... I was told about this site by another ex AOS refugee but with "the clue being in the name" of this site I rather suspect that my opinions would not be welcome.... Especially when someone asks about lets say phono stages and gets loads of recommendation for NVA units followed by me piping up to point out that I also manufacture one which may interest them!! I guess Mr Dunn would quite reasonably have a problem with that!! I would if I was in his position....

I only talk about NVA in the NVA room, you do the same and it is no problem, and you do not cross post.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Clarification now I am back. I would very much welcome Jez to tell us about his products and promote them, it matters not that we are in competition, what matters is he supplies direct, with no MCRU type middleman shit polluting the process. Just if you want to do it Jez then you have to ask to have a forum room set up in your company name, that is the way we do it. There are very few because others are licking other forum owners arses or don't understand what this forum is about.

On your objectivist nature, yes I am afraid you will get some ribbing.

Let me put my point of view. I am an objectivist when I need to be, especially in early development stages, but if I want to know how good the thing is that objectivism has helped me make then I have to be a subjectivist, as music is an emotional subjective experience. I also have to, with great reluctance, agree with Marco that there is too much of the foo / fairy dust type comments, they are demeaning comment to someone who just disagrees with you, may be foolishly, but we all have to learn, and I can assure that will be done with experience facts and logic not bullshit and insult. What I think you need to think about is that end users cannot be objective due to the very function of what they are doing they can *only* be subjective, unless they *do* what the techies tell them, which is just as bad as your so called foo merchants and just as big a bullshit but on the other side of the mirror.

Sometimes techies have to have a reality check, as with the guy who gets tooo enthusiastic about his system choices can be a pain in the arse the way they shove it down peoples throats (Marco being the prime example). As designers we have to accept that even though we can only produce kit *we* like that doesn't make it that others have to agree as *we* are all just individuals, but in theory with more technical knowledge and experience. I said in an earlier post you also need to learn. I recommend you read the post at AoS and here by Gromit, and you will find a musical expertise we don't have, and that deserves equal respect.

People only know what they know, they only have the experience of what they have experienced. They (all of them) need to be respected for that even if they are early journeymen in the pursuit of good music. It is only spoilt on their side by the arrogant egotistical shitbags like Marco, who think they know everything and push it down everyone elses throats even though as we both know in reality he actually *knows* next to nothing!!!

It is a fine tightrope to walk and we often get it wrong, but if you respect your customers as your equals, *and LISTEN to them* even if you don't follow that and explain to them a different path, you must remember all of us only have two ears and we are all learning.

[Jez Arkless]

Clarification now I am back. I would very much welcome Jez to tell us about his products and promote them, it matters not that we are in competition, what matters is he supplies direct, with no MCRU type middleman shit polluting the process. Just if you want to do it Jez then you have to ask to have a forum room set up in your company name, that is the way we do it. There are very few because others are licking other forum owners arses or don't understand what this forum is about.

On your objectivist nature, yes I am afraid you will get some ribbing.

Let me put my point of view. I am an objectivist when I need to be, especially in early development stages, but if I want to know how good the thing is that objectivism has helped me make then I have to be a subjectivist, as music is an emotional subjective experience. I also have to, with great reluctance, agree with Marco that there is too much of the foo / fairy dust type comments, they are demeaning comment to someone who just disagrees with you, may be foolishly, but we all have to learn, and I can assure that will be done with experience facts and logic not bullshit and insult. What I think you need to think about is that end users cannot be objective due to the very function of what they are doing they can *only* be subjective, unless they *do* what the techies tell them, which is just as bad as your so called foo merchants and just as big a bullshit but on the other side of the mirror.

Sometimes techies have to have a reality check, as with the guy who gets tooo enthusiastic about his system choices can be a pain in the arse the way they shove it down peoples throats (Marco being the prime example). As designers we have to accept that even though we can only produce kit *we* like that doesn't make it that others have to agree as *we* are all just individuals, but in theory with more technical knowledge and experience. I said in an earlier post you also need to learn. I recommend you read the post at AoS and here by Gromit, and you will find a musical expertise we don't have, and that deserves equal respect.

People only know what they know, they only have the experience of what they have experienced. They (all of them) need to be respected for that even if they are early journeymen in the pursuit of good music. It is only spoilt on their side by the arrogant egotistical shitbags like Marco, who think they know everything and push it down everyone elses throats even though as we both know in reality he actually *knows* next to nothing!!!

It is a fine tightrope to walk and we often get it wrong, but if you respect your customers as your equals, *and LISTEN to them* even if you don't follow that and explain to them a different path, you must remember all of us only have two ears and we are all learning.

An interesting post.

First it seems I must say yet again that I am not an objectivist! My design process is much the same as your own in that I use my knowledge and experience to design an amp and use a considerable amount of test gear to verify the performance in terms of THD, FR and stability. It them all comes down to the ears!

Where my subjectivity ends is the claims some make about mains cables etc etc which if they were to be true would require the laws of physics to be faulty... When given a choice of probability between the laws of physics being wrong and an enthusiast falling for expectation bias then I know which I consider the most likely!

As far as music goes, and you mentioned Gromit as a musician, well I am also... Clarinet, Alto sax and guitar.... It helps give one an idea of what live unamplified music should sound like.

I do think subjectivism has gone a bit to far generally... SET amps with 5% THD driving horn speakers with 20dB response irregularities may sound good to some but it ain't hifi by any definition of hifi that I know