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Separates

Paul's Posts — 30 August 2012

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Separates

The separates category in high-end audio is one that is continually occupying my thought process.  On the one hand the idea of multiple dedicated boxes allows us to add specific functions to our systems – each with its own independent ecosystem  - in an attempt to wring out the very best sound possible in audio today.  We can upgrade specific parts of our systems to the latest whiz bang without chucking the whole system.  Separates are great!

On the other hand many dedicated boxes need to be connected together in a tangle of interconnects that are both expensive, unnecessary and probably sonically degrading.  In the end, don’t all of us just want to play music and have it sound wonderful and impressive in our homes?  Wouldn’t we love just one easy box solution that we come home to and enjoy?

Separates really have a unique love/hate relationship in our world of high end audio.

I thought we might spend a few posts taking a look at them anew (we’ve been here before) and question their value.  To do this effectively let’s take a moment to go through a quick history of how we got here and why.

Hi Fi didn’t start out with separates.  The first players were always complete because people naturally wanted something that just worked and I believe there’s no difference in this feeling today.  But I jump ahead of myself.

Separates

When you look at this picture of an old and rare Victrola and realize it is not only a complete player but one that required no electricity to run you might scratch your head as to why I would include such an ancient device in this column on high-end audio.  I’ll tell you.  This marvel of music reproduction brought music to the world in a way that revolutionized everything we take for granted today.  Before the introduction of the Victrola or Gramophone there was only live music and that music could only be enjoyed by a special few.  Music for the masses did not exist until this player came into use.

At the height of the mechanical player’s popularity in the early 1900′s there were millions produced every year all over the world.  Millions each year.  I find this fascinating because within just a few short years of its introduction the world went from music-less to filled with music in the blink of an eye.  The public’s hunger for music in the home was simply insatiable and I believe this event was on the same level as that of the invention of the printed book.  In fact, I dare say the invention of the home music player might have been greater since everyone can appreciate music and back then not everyone could read.  Literacy rates around the world were surprisingly low at the turn of the 1900′s.

How did this marvel of engineering work?  In the same way a tin can “phone” works.  Remember as a kid taking two metal cans, punching a hole in the bottom of each and attaching a taught string between the two and making a phone you could talk to your friend with?  That’s how it works.

Separates

Sound pressure from your voice moves the bottom of the can back and forth and that movement is carried down the string and the receiving can’s bottom moves in like-response – re-pressurizing the air again so you hear sound.  Now, replace the string with a needle and position the needle of one can into a soft wax or plastic material that is spinning underneath (in the form of a cylinder or a flat disc) and the mechanical movement is cut into that soft medium with the moving needle – all powered from nothing more than your voice.  Voila, you have a record.  Just reverse the process and you hear sound.

The sound out of our can isn’t very loud and we need to amplify it.  That’s the function of the big horn you always see on these devices – it’s an amplifier.  I am sure all of you have seen horn loudspeakers?  That’s exactly the same thing still used today and many in the high-end swear by the sound of these horns.  Others swear at them, but that’s for another post.  :)

Separates

The point of this post is that music players started out as whole players because people who want to listen to music want something simple, elegant and easy to use.  Tomorrow we progress a bit further.

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About Author

Paul McGowan

Paul McGowan is the CEO and co-founder of PS Audio Inc. a Boulder Colorado design and manufacturing company of high-end audio products and services. McGowan has been designing and building high-end products for nearly 40 years. Hobbies include skiing, music, hiking, artisan bread baking, kick boxing and cooking. He lives in Boulder Colorado with his wife Terri and his 4 sons.

(8) Readers Comments

  1. Soundminded

    August 30, 2012 at 4:41 am

    It all boils down to a matter of packaging. In the old days heat and physical limitations of size and weight precluded the best equipment being built in one box.Today it’s a matter of perception. How these packages look seems more important than how they perform. I defy anyone to walk inot a room and guess what amplifier or preamplifier they are listening to without seeing it or being told. However, to my surprise at the 2007 VTV show I discovered I could tell the difference by sound alone between tubes and transistors. I guessed the one solid state amplifier there. It reminded me why I switched to solid state over 40 years ago and never looked back.

    If you can’t sell the steak, sell the sizzle. Personally I liked the styling of the 1960s and 1970s much better than today’s. I also like having more control over the signal not less. With enough controls carefully adjusted, perceived differences can largely be negated. Lucky me. There’s a lot of excellent equipment on the used market nobody wants.

  2. paulsquirrel

    August 30, 2012 at 6:13 am

    Hi Paul

    I would like to encourage you to push the development of a One-Box-Design (power supply and speakers excluded).

    In old days people even had record player being fed with some 6 to 8 schellacks thus having their favorite “tracks” available however in a defined sequence.
    With the availability of affordable digital mass storage devices and digitally stored music and the “cheap” (tablet-) computer technology as a basic technology a one box solution should be a must.
    However I fear that pure commercial market reasons will strongly retard such approaches because that would mean loss of cables- and tweaks- and separates-markets.

    However I do hope that a similar paradigm shift will happen as can be seen from the success of tablet computers and smartphones washing away outdated design concepts that are too far away from the mass market needs / requirements.

    Of course there will remain niche markets for high end aficionados. But the computer market will define the direction as can be seen from the long predicted and strongly retarded internet tv solutions.

    The art of design for high end solutions would be to offer a consistent upgrade path for the consumer helping him to integrate new and hopfully “better” technology.

    The turntable market shows how important it is to respect the market requirements as well as the conservative market powers: just look to the failure of the laser turntable that would have totally destroyed the business of the manufacturers of MM and MC pick-ups, phono preamps, tonearms, external motor drives, cables and tweaks if it would have succeeded!.

    The laser pick-up technology should be commodity having BlueRay drive technology available – no rocket science anymore.

    I come back to my initial invitation: accept the paradigm change and start the new approach in the opening niche!

  3. hahax

    August 30, 2012 at 6:26 am

    I’d love to see the number of boxes minimized. I can see two ways although I’m sure there are others.

    1. Integrated amp with digital built in, sort of like the old days where we had integrated amps with a phono. Now the digital replaces the phono. And if Class D amps become competitive with the very best this becomes very viable weight and heat wise.

    2. A separate control amp with digital and controls and powered speakers. This is my preference because all things being equal a powered speaker with electronic crossovers is superior to one with seperate amps and passive crossovers. The problem is the quality of the amps given no chance to play with alternative amps. And I suspect the audiophile community will never go this way. I do know that Gordon Holt believed in powered speakers and his last personal set were ATC 50s.

  4. Bassman23

    August 30, 2012 at 7:01 am

    Can it be that the “era of separates” has been an evolutionary step, during which time engineers tore apart the entire process of sound reproduction and went about solving the issues of each part of the chain “separately”? The end game of this type of process would logically be a holistic system utilizing the individual, optimized solutions.

  5. August 30, 2012 at 7:20 am

    There are certainly advantages, but then you’re stuck with whatever the maker’s concept of good sound is, and you hope it goes with your taste and speakers. If you have the same notions of good sound, great – you’ve potentially made a more purist path from source to speaker. Seems like you would need to make it modular in some way though, as in a mainframe with replaceable circuit boards for the tweakers – if you want to please everybody.

  6. Tom

    August 30, 2012 at 8:03 am

    “The point of this post is that music players started out as whole players because people who want to listen to music want something simple, elegant and easy to use.”

    I’ll agree grudgingly that performance issues can now be non-issues for discussions of separates and whatever noun should be used for all-in-one products. (Fifty years or so back it the alternative was a “console” which pretty much fit your statement above.)

    The issues that remain, for me, are those of configuration and operation, roughly corresponding to the “elegant and easy to use” factors. Suppose I prefer two channels of audio but would like a unit that will stream Internet audio and video? What are the odds someone will cobble that up and put it on the market for me and a half dozen other potential customers?

    And speaking of streaming media, it appears that the trend is to put that feature into Blu-Ray players, TV sets, AV receivers, tablets, mobile phones, game consoles, handheld gaming devices, and of course the standalone Roku and Boxee type products. I seem to recall hearing about a network-ready refrigerator.

    We’re in a period of flux for sure and perhaps things will sort themselves out. But a lot of people are going to end up settling for less instead of more…or is it vice versa?

  7. Bobby Lozada

    August 30, 2012 at 8:36 pm

    Hi Paul,
    Just wondering what brand this blue horn speaker has. It looks beautiful!
    Bobby

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