Trouble Shooting — Kent English / 2002

Pre-Amplifiers Within the Pass Labs pre-amplifier family we typically see two installation errors, both involving cable issues. The most common error concerns improper sequence of cable connection for our pre-amplifiers with dedicated outboard power supplies. The last cable attached to these preamplifier products must always be the power cord. Attach these cables out of sequence and the logic circuitry in these particular products may cause them to self protect. The power cord must be plugged into the power supply chassis after all other cables are attached and lastly plugged into mains power. If you have done this out of sequence,… More...

The Legend of EL PIPE-O — Kent English / 2002

Most woofers just don’t quite do the lowest octave. You read the specs that say “usable response: 20 Hz – 20 KHz” and you know that the 20 Hz part of it is wildly optimistic. Achieving very low frequencies at reasonable power levels is not an easy job; the acoustic impedance experienced by a speaker cone declines as the inverse of the square of the frequency. As a practical matter, woofers and their enclosures need to be very large to properly reproduce the lowest octave. Even when you compensate with frequency equalization and more amplifier power, the performance suffers as… More...