rock4016 wrote:
In effect you are saying that the coupling cap presuming the proper value is chosen, has little or no effect on the sound of the amp.
I believe you have misunderstood my position. I never said that the coupling capacitor has no effect on the sound of the amp. Nor did I indicate that all coupling capacitors were equal in effect. I agree that different capacitors will impart different overall sounds to an amplifier. The choice of component values, characteristics, and quality are all part of the design process.
However, one does not simply remove the coupling cap from an amplifier design to arrive at a direct coupled amplifier. The topologies are different. I am suggesting that the sonic differences between capacitor coupled amps and direct coupled amps (and transformer coupled amps for that matter) arise from the fundamental differences in topologies and operation; not simply from the presence or absence of a single capacitor.
Your statement that "... even the very best caps that I can afford (V-Caps) still don't sound as good as no cap at all" is still, no matter how fervently you may hold that position, just your opinion; and other's will have their own opinions. Also, I fully grant that your opinion has just as much merit as mine in the overall discussion. However, our opinions are just that, opinions and not objective fact. All that I said was that,
in my opinion, the impacts to the design in choosing the direct coupled topology, for the removal of a coupling capacitor, were not warranted. And I still believe this to be the case. You are, of course, free to disagree. This is one of the true benefits of a free and open discourse.
As to the efficiency, you are correct that I usually don't care much about overall power added efficiency in a tube amplifier. However, my comments were in the context of a specific power supply topology where inherent limitations exist. As such, they should be evaluated in that light.
As for biasing methods, again these are my opinions. I realize that there are many who feel that the "more direct" approach to biasing is better, but this topic has been argued to death on these forums and I am reluctant to restart the shooting war again here. The methods may be sufficient to meet requirements in some designs, I simply don't like them because of the other restrictions they impose upon the design process. As I said "I'm not a fan", not that these methods are inherently evil.
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