The Kleinhorn Part 2 — Nelson Pass / 2004

If you saw part one of this project (AudioXpress, January 2005), you know that the KleinHorn is a big toy, and you can imagine that it’s hard to resist playing with it further. When Chris and Matt built the horns last year, they made different driver chambers and replaceable front baffles, so that it would be easy to try different loudspeaker drivers. In this part we will first briefly explore some of the effects experienced with different amounts of absorbent stuffing in the horn as presented in Part 1. Then I will describe the effort to add scary deep bottom… More...

The Zen Amplifier — Nelson Pass / 1993

I. "What is the sound of one transistor clapping?" There are two most essential principles to audio amplifier design. The first is simplicity. The second is linearity. Einstein said, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." Simplicity is a common element of the best and most subtle designs. It is preferred for purely aesthetic reasons, but also because fewer elements color the sound less, and lose less information. Many audiophiles, including myself, are willing to sacrifice other areas of performance to achieve the intimacy with the sound available through a simple circuit. An amplifier should be… More...