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Concepts
The human vision, hearing and other senses are not absolute measurement devices. They compare the difference between a reference and the tracked signals and it's changes over time.
The hearing system registers sounds and requires some time to asses what they are then starts to track the changes giving less importance (loosing interest) to long and sustained signals with no change.
It adapts to the surrounding (residual) background and concentrates on the constant changes in signal properties. The same as your vision is attracted by motion or flashing lights.
That phenomenon allows you to follow a conversation between two people in a noisy environment or listen to the voice of a singer undisturbed by a busy piece. In your office you realize how noisy it is only when the noise stops.
If a background is quiet the following sound appears louder and clearer. Anything different from the pitch-black background attracts your attention. Or if your hearing has adapted to a residual noise you start loosing information (your brain does not pay attention to it). To make an analogy it is like increasing contrast in a picture by darkening the background not increasing the brightness. The bright light will blind you and you would not see better, but removing the strenuous light makes your reference (black) stable and the picture becomes more vivid and sharp. It's like watching a movie in the cinema with the ambient lights on or off. Let us put this in the context we are interested. Music is written with notes and pauses that represent sounds and SILENCE. The quality and quantity of silence in between notes is just as important as the notes pitch and timbre themselves.
It is rather complex why we have all those artifacts following our precious music trough the reproduction chain but it is immediately apparent when they are reduced, and simply amazing when they are almost gone. Serenity and expressiveness come to mind when you experience it. It just sounds right.
Inspiration
The works of Japanese tube gurus are a source of inspiration for us. Shishido San's designs with transmission triodes manifested trough Wavac Audio and Kondo San's creations at Audio Note Japan are the best examples of the Japanese vacuum tube art currently in production and the different approaches taken to achieve the same goal. Their attention to detail and manufacturing quality inspired us to try and do better. The works and concepts of another Japanese designer came closest to the direction we were heading. Never implemented commercially the designs of Sakuma San are a tough example to follow. Directly heated triodes with inductive loads seemed to deliver the effortlessness and tonal richness we are after.
Later we would realize that the root of it all was Western Electric and their creations. Their amplifiers and speakers are something like Adam and Eve for the High end audio.
Trough those simple designs music flowed seamlessly but with quite some shortcomings. Many tried to improve on those trough the years, getting rid of most problems by unnecessary complication. The goal for improved music reproduction mutated into engineering competition in achieving meaningless target figures in areas alien to music and it's reproduction. It is a bit like specifying string weight and length in the piano. It is just irrelevant.
Learning from legacy
Looking at quality goods, wines, watches we see the same techniques used years back are still in use today. Yet the properly made modern products are incomparably better.
We have all seen the glass piano and bodiless electric violin – again victims of technology perhaps.
We try to use as much as possible of the knowledge accumulated in the field and blend it with our own experience and leading edge high-tech available today to achieve what previous attempts have failed.
There are superb designs out there by many reputable companies that reproduce sounds like us but few if any reproduce silence as good.
Motivation
Many years of exploration in the world of high quality audio passed in listening, recording and comparing. Vast resources were wasted on 'superbrand" products before we realized we can't buy the product that satisfied all our needs and felt the need to develop our own audio components. We gained experience with all available technologies and amplification circuits making headlines through the years and gradually filtered them down to a list of worthy contenders.
People are afraid from the unknown; they often are slaves to positions until challenge in their beliefs. Trough "information" and "logic" (a process directed usually by a marketing agency) they form another set of such presumptions until the next "breakthrough" is marketed. Instead of taking anything for granted we got down and started digging.
We found numerous high-end products where promising the world but most of them on a closer check usually told a different story. Some exhibited very good qualities but severely lacked on others.
Some products carried true innovation but usually limited to part of the whole making it no better than average. Ingenious approaches coupled with off the shelf oem peripheral and bad manufacturing quality was the norm, lack of understanding of the whole system or just plain cheats where not a few.
We listened - we researched - this led us in a 2 year R&D project in our own lab evaluating amplification topologies and circuits. Numerous prototypes were built studied and some destroyed until a pattern and a theory emerged.
This was followed by yet another year of hands on research and tests of the influence of various components and their qualities on sound. Involving thousands man/hours of auditioning and comparisons.
We spent considerable time on mechanical construction and manufacturing methodology (This being clearly visible in our components). Vibration control, electromagnetic and electrostatic shielding, contact potential and many others followed. What we did, had to be consistent and reproducible.
We have not discovered a loophole in the laws of physics. What we found is that people quickly forget the achievements of times past; just to "discover" them again at a much later date. It is all there, you just have to put it together. We don't believe patented ways of heating water will make the difference. We look for the simplest meaningful legacy solution, find its flaws (usually wrong assumptions) and fix them if we can. It does not matter how much better a modern solution is if it is based on the same flawed assumptions and makes the same errors but better.
Taping on the available 21st century technologies and materials allowed us to achieve what the early designers would call fiction.
True to our beliefs we decided not to re-invent "the wheel" but to use the works and experience of the very best and implement their knowledge in our product. It took a lot of time and tests to determine who tells the truth and does the story have a true meaning. We do NOT build our own components but we buy them from the people that do that better than anybody we know. (and we know a lot). We had to do ourselves all the rest that we could not buy at the required quality level.
We are probably one of the very few companies that go to that extent. We don't use a supplier's line of components for convenience but we use only the best part available for the specific design. As example Plitron in Canada makes the transformer and choke in Spartacus power supply and Tamura in Japan makes the signal handling ones. In Dionysos the honor goes to Lundahl for power and Hashimoto for signal. Same is applicable for tubes and other components. I could write a page for why every bit that goes in one of our products is there and the reasons for being exactly that one.
There is no trick, no magic. It is a complex function of knowledge, attention to detail, common sense and open mind that gets you there.
I hope what we came up with pleases your senses and sets you on a quest to seek those qualities in all products.
Enjoy. |
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HI-FI EXPO 2011 SOFIA
At Hi-Fi Expo 2011 you will have the chance to hear, see and enjoy se-lected audio-video com-ponents from well-known manufacturers from all over the world.
»more
HIGH END 2011
We are pleased to
inform you that our company Thrax Audio Ltd is exhibiting at the Munich Show from May 19th to May 22th, we will be at Hall 4 Stand E207.»more
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