Very sorry to hear that Bascom H King passed away. I watched some of his interviews and videos and as an engineer found much of what he said very interesting. The world is a poorer place with highly knowledgeable old school analogue engineers like this absent from it. RIP Sir.
One negative comment the person operating the video camera needs to zoom in on the whiteboard! Even watching. This on my 55” 4K tv I wasn’t able to see his diagram! Otherwise I liked the content, but the camera work was abysmal!
Thank you for this great series and assembly of such intelligentsia! It is amazing and humbling to think of all that these men - Paul, Arnie and Bascom - have accomplished in their careers. To envision, create and bring to life a functioning amp, DAC, servo-controlled speakers must be deeply rewarding. I wonder if I could commission these gentleman to develop a new woofer-controlled servo system based on piezoelectric film accelerometers such as the ACH-01 and the latest Class D amplifiers?
Great info from all the presenters. Hats off to PS Audio for being able to present their present all their products/projects in such a digestible way! Love the Genesis Speakers I found as well Paul, though they are not exactly on the same pay grade as the power amps :P
I own a pair of Infinity IRS Beta’s, and enjoyed this series feeling an indirect connection to Arnie himself (especially now that he’s passed). For all the voodoo that high end audio can be, it’s really enjoyable to watch these esoteric old guys having fun with each other and letting their personalities shine as they entertain all of us through the passion of music RE-production.
I think Bascom may have been referring to the late Allen Wright and what he did at 26:35 (I was a collaborator of Allen's for 35 years). Bascom knew about Allen's work and also Bill Thalmann (ex Conrad-Johnson designer) and got Arnie to have a Sony SCD-1 upgraded by Bill using our modules. Paul must remember that SCD-1 because Arnie seemed to like it at the time in the early noughties. I have designed an amp that is based on the legacy of Allen's and the front-end is pure cascode, Darlingtons on the bottoms and N-Fets on top, long-tailed differential. I am very conscious of the input Gate capacitance of these Fets - I used IRFBF20 devices. But when there is no signal on the gate, or any other funnies (even Base current on transistors is suspect IMO), that explains the linearity even if you have to use P-Fets, just as Bascom explains, at least that is my explanation. That cascode front-end is operating with a gain of 400 because the output stage gain is only two, but we operate the Anodes at around 1/3rd of the impedance of Triode and then we have the step-down transformer - that's the reason for the high gain needed and also able to swing in excess of 1000V p/p - yes 1000V. It sounds incredible and we hope to get to manufacture it soon. There are some that says that everything has been tried and there is nothing new, but we have found this just is not the case. In some ways the best has been what has happened of late, but based on past experience. We must always be willing to think outside the box. Never say it will end, or else it will end. That would be sad. RIP Arnie Nudell and Allen Wright.
Please read my reply to the individual who made that ignorant comment about this panel of designers not capable of hearing above 12khz. These audio designers are legends and have earned my full respect for their contributions and passion.
Talk about tube life why hasn't anyone besides Bob Carver designed a tube amplifier where the tubes have a 50 YEAR life expectancy , His Crimson 275 stereo has a 5 year tube warranty , the 350 Monoblock's has a 10 year tube warranty and the Silver Seven 900 Monoblock's have a LIFETIME tube warranty .
PS Audio 25:00 I don't know you mean, every PCB house in the world can manufacture thru hole PCBs, do you mean PCB assembly? Does PS Audio not assemble the PCBs in house?
Not my first time watching this, but always enjoyed this 3-part discussion. You just don't get to to hear this kind of stuff. Just to have these three gentlemen in the same room truly blows me away..Paul, Arnie, and Bascom. Too bad two of them are gone now, but they certainly did great things for audio. Paul you have the torch now...and that is certainly not undermining your many great contributions to audio. You certainly are one-of-a-kind in this industry. I enjoy my old vintage amps that use the same NPN BJTs in the output (before MOSFETs came around) stages too. This Bascom Amps must sound wonderful !
Fantastic interviews! I heard my first electrostatic speakers, the Infinity Servostats, back in 1970, and I knew I would own them one day. That day finally came several years later, after building my own electrostatics. I have owned fifty or so pairs of Infinity speakers. I learned about Bascom King while working with Ron Dunn, the Infinity rep for the Southeast. Ron had a Hybrid Class A amp that we would demo to dealers. I never met Arnie until he was demonstrating the new Genesis Model one at the Miami show in 1997. You all are legends in my book!
He's a very knowledgeable guy that's for sure. You can tell just listening to him that he knows a great deal about audio electronic engineering. People that work with somebody like that are very lucky and can learn a huge amount.
Young people who are professional musicians who have careers in well known symphony orchestras, know how to put together a decent and affordable sound system. Their ears are well trained, so it's not really an impossible task.
I think my no negative feedback power amplifiers are just as good for 1500 us dolar pr stereo power amplifer.small toroid and 2 rectifiers 20 000uf for inputstages a big toroidal trafo for output stage with 2 rectifiers and 100 000uf capasititor.Total capasitor bank is 120 000uf pr 2 mono modules with 120w. sanken output devices.i make them as 240 watt also with 4 output devices but recomend to get them made so customer have one input pr channel and 2 pair (2 red and 2 black speaker outputs) coupled to 2 output devices each so a mono block gives 2 times 120 watt with one signal input.rca or balansed versons i also make.twise the hardware twice around the prize.This amplifier is so quiet that a 96db 1w 1meter sensitivity tweeter you have to get ear close to tweeter to detect amp is on.Almost every p.amp i have tried i active system makes to much hiss.This is a linear amplifier.No osilation problems do to no negative feedback.can run without dc servo(just lift a jumper piece as i mainboard on pc have.Zobel network on speaker outputs are recomended and used.Other people say it is great sounding.I agree.it can drive loads down to 1 ohm.it doubles power from 8ohm to 4 and from 4ohm to 2ohm.Bias is recomended for 8 ohm is 10mv.for 4ohms load setr it to 20mv and so on.All components are off topp quality and very low toleranse.Some say the mid to lower midrange is fuller and remind them of tube without disadantages off tube.sorry for my bad english writting.
Too bad you feel that way about these devoted designers. Their passion is to bring the live performance nuances into the home. Try attending a well designed symphony hall that doesn't rely on microphones and amplification. I have always tried to explain to people that when a totally blind individual who enters your home and makes a comment that those musicians really sound wonderful and who is that vocalist singing with them, but in reality, it is a very excellent audio system playing through speakers. That is the ultimate complement for an audiophile who is trying to reproduce music that is natural and convincing.
