Andy Grove of Audio Note UK on IO LTD

Read: Audio Note UK IO Ltd field-coil cartridge system Review

I group audio engineering kung-fu into 3 important classes:

Concepts which have a strong theoretical foundation.
Concepts which have a believable, however tenuous or inadequately researched theoretical foundation.
Pure Magic, primarily based on instinct and experimentation!

What we’re speaking about right here, the sound of magnets, I might class within the second group.

I’m positive you’ve gotten heard and skim many occasions one thing alongside the strains of: ‘The flux is 1 Tesla, it doesn’t matter whether or not it’s from a ceramic, alnico, neo or discipline coil’.

If you ask a guitarist (like me) whether or not ceramic or alnico magnets make a distinction to a pickup or speaker’s tone, they’ll let you know they do. Which you selected is right down to style and the kind of music you play. For instance, for metallic you may select a ceramic bridge pickup and alnico neck, I’ve one guitar like that, the others are all alnico.

Permanent magnets are supplies with a broad hysteresis loop – as soon as magnetised vitality is saved and never launched. That vitality is saved inside the materials’s crystal lattice.

In use, a magnet is positioned in a magnetic circuit, and the magnet itself is a sort of battery driving the flux within the circuit. The magnetic conductor is normally a tender magnetic materials, similar to pure iron, and within the case of a cartridge or speaker, a part of the circuit is an air hole the place the coil is positioned.

So, in a cartridge or speaker, the magnetic circuit is made up from Magnet, Iron, Air.

In a discipline coil system, some sort of coil, with a present passing by way of it, is used to drive the flux by way of the magnetic circuit.

So, the magnetic circuit right here is Iron, Air.

These are two fairly completely different eventualities, although the DC hole flux could be organized to be the identical. One distinction is what occurs when an AC flux is superimposed onto the prevailing CD flux. – that is what occurs in a speaker, and, to a sure extent in a cartridge as a result of self-inducted present within the pickup coil.

In each instances, the prevailing discipline can be modulated to a sure extent, and the way the magnetic circuit reacts to that, particularly the everlasting magnet system, goes a protracted method to describing what we hear.

Taking the sector coil first, the superimposed discipline will generate an EMF within the discipline coil, just like a transformer. If the ability provide is low impedance, that present will disappear into it, subsequently damping the modulation. Secondly, the circuit is manufactured from a cloth like pure iron, which has a low loss hysteresis loop, and is kind of clean and linear in its traits.

The everlasting magnet is kind of completely different. The magnet does react to the superimposed discipline, however the system is much more elastic, so the sector is modulated extra. Secondly, everlasting magnet supplies have a giant hysteresis loop, which is intrinsically nonlinear.

What I feel we hear is not less than partly attributable to Barkhausen Noise, which is the impact whereby Ferromagnetic supplies magnetise and demagnetise in discrete steps. By their very nature everlasting magnet supplies generate a lot, rather more of this noise in comparison with tender supplies like iron. And, in actual fact, the truth that everlasting magnets are normally laborious and brittle and pure annealed iron is like tender cheese is a clue – the previous has quite a lot of defects in its crystal lattice, which makes the fabric bodily laborious, the iron has few, which makes it very tender.

The lattice defects briefly impede the sector because it’s rising or diminishing, till it all of the sudden snaps previous in a discrete bounce. This is what causes Barkhausen Noise.

The impact is that completely different magnet techniques generate completely different ranges and forms of background hash. The discipline coil system, as a result of circuit being composed solely of soppy iron, generates the least, and that’s obvious within the lack of grain and mush – you hear extra element with out it being harsh. It’s an enchancment in dynamic vary.

I assume some could learn this and proceed with their 1 Tesla is 1 Tesla ‘”Electronics 101″ worldview, however that comes about attributable to an incomplete worldview, and it flies straight within the face of thousands and thousands of musicians worldwide.

Regarding analogue tape vs IO Ltd., if we take into account grasp tapes, which means these that are used to create vinyl, then one would anticipate the transcription and replay processes to introduce sure ‘modifications’ – even when we would choose the end result.

I imagine, although, you might be referring extra to replay of what could be commercially obtainable tapes, on stereo playback tools. In that case, the tapes could also be a number of generations away from the grasp and also will bear ‘modifications’ by the duplications course of, and by the machine you might be replaying on.

In the latter case, I feel, sure, it’s potential for vinyl to outdo tape, particularly when contemplating the IO Ltd. (and associated Audio Note tools), which is designed to be glorious at audio, in comparison with tapes deck that are most probably designed to be good on a take a look at bench.

Overall, although, the satan is within the particulars…

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March 13, 2024 at 05:02PM