Those look cool. I have not heard any equipment that uses those yet. If you could separate what the mercury rectifiers bring to the sound what would you say that is?
Speed and resolution.
Those look cool. I have not heard any equipment that uses those yet. If you could separate what the mercury rectifiers bring to the sound what would you say that is?
I have read that the mercury rectifiers create high frequency noise that needs to be filtered out. I assume this is why they are not more popular. I'm sure if implemented properly they work fine though.
A major problem with all gas or vapor arc rectifiers is radio-frequency noise. This is not the subtle switching noise from a silicon rectifier that takes a sensitive spectrum analyzer to see, this is noise that can blank out an AM radio. When these rectifiers were used in communications equipment or car radios, so-called “hash filters” (composed of inductors and capacitors) had to be installed on both the AC and DC connections to the rectifiers. This noise is caused by the abrupt onset of conduction when the ionization potential is reached. The chaotic condition of the gas or vapor at the cathode surface causes this point of conduction to be somewhat randomized, hence the use of the term “hash” for the kind of noise it generates. It can be argued that in a purely audio amplifier, this noise is irrelevant, but RF can be detected or intermodulated down into the audio band in sensitive circuits. Filtering can only do so much. I would rather not have these major noise generators in my high-resolution amplifiers.
Speed and resolution.
Speed and resolution.
I might be wrong but I think Carl also uses the mercury tube in his Allnic? And it's not a drop in replacement as I understand; some modding is necessary by the designer to accomodate the tube.
I modified it myself with my miniimalist electronic skills.View attachment 8061
The answer to "why" in my estimate is utter liquidity and smoothness.
Is that tube really hanging out the side of your preamp?? Does that make it Allnicstein?
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