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If you have a question pertaining to a particular
product, please see
general questions or select a product group.
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General Questions:
- What do you mean by "All discrete, Class A circuitry,"
and how does that affect the sound?
- What is a FET input?
1. What do you mean by "All discrete, Class A circuitry,"
and how does that affect the sound?
Much audio circuitry these days is assembled with integrated circuits,
or op amps. These chips are versatile and easy to design with, but
the drawback of that versatility is that this circuitry usually
includes many extra parts that aren't needed in every application.
These extra parts can cloud the sound and add noise. Contrarily,
a discrete circuit has only the parts it needs, carefully selected
for that one application. Some of our designs have only two transistors
in the signal path, as opposed to the six or more in a typical op
amp.
Class A circuitry is a term for a particular style of amplifier
design. There are also classes B, AB, C and D. The reason we use
(and brag about) class A is that this is generally accepted to be
the smoothest, most musical style of amplifier.
Bottom line: Class A, all-discrete circuitry will generally
be the sweetest, lowest-noise and most musical way to design solid
state audio.
2. What is a FET input?
FET stands for Field Effect Transistor. When amplifying piezoelectric
pickups such as ours, a FET will have more accuracy and lower noise
than other types of transistor. FETs also have a good reputation
in the audio community for sweet, musical sound. We agree.
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