Today's invitation is directly due to an idea one of our readers promoted. Here's the genesis of this idea. It shows how unexpected doors can open on paths that at first seemed to lead elsewhere [for a real reality check, click on the above photo to visit Viviane Wegrath's website on sky surfing]:


Hello Terry,
well, I ain't no engineer and never pretend I am but when someone puts on the hype too much, even the little I know is enough to recognize it -:)

I just wanted to make sure people are interested in these amps for the right reasons (how they sound which is something I'm still experimenting with) rather than for the wrong reasons (inflated claims)...

Srajan



Hello Srajan,
Well, I ain't no electrical engineer (I'm a materials/corrosion engineer, one of those screwy non-typical disciplines), but I am a very avid hobbyist in audio electronics and have the benefit of access to test equipment that would even make ol' Harman International envious.

I have been thinking for a while that an article or two on the hobbyist audio community would be an interesting addition to your portfolio. As you seem to be aware, there are a lot of interesting things being done that never become more than a handful of units and in many cases become a single one-off. A perfect example is my creation of an Aleph-H! I adapted the Pass Aleph amplifier circuit for a headphone amplifier and because it is a one-off, I could do silly things like put 200,000uF of capacitance in the power supply and have it swing a 15V output at 0.5A. It was designed specifically for my Grado Labs but does a beautiful job with Sennheiser (and I suspect they'd directly drive your beloved earspeakers without any trouble). Further, the majority of the hobbyist designers are like me and have at least two or three of their own component designs. There should be plenty of fodder for a run of articles and I think we'd all be interested to see how close we come to the commercial offerings. Sort of a reality check for us if you will. Peter Daniel is a perfect example of a hobbyist turned highly respected commercial designer so you never know what is lurking out there.

Just a thought!
Terry Aben
Excellent thought, too. Voila, our new feature called Reality Check. Anyone may apply. Okay, within reason. To limit the scope to something manageable and of potential interest to all of our readers (and not just the maker as a free consultation of sorts), I'll impose the following prerequisite: The product has to be of "commercial-ready" status i.e. should, after reading about it, someone want to approach you for a unit (or something based on it), you could and would respond. This eliminates bread-boarded circuit and super-funky, completely impractical stuff. But anything that could be sold by being cosmetically dialed enough and a fully functioning safe audio component may apply. Let the games being. [One-up maestro Josh Stippich of Electronluv -- left -- shows what can be done at the extreme of this sector.]