1 Mhz
Contents
What was understood within Spectral from the first amplifier is the importance of bandwidth. Even though our hearing stops at 20kHz and as the age increases that limit only decreases, the researcher in Richard was convinced that our perception goes at least up to 100kHz. Spectral amplifier therefore has a bandwidth of at least 1 MHz.
So making a preamplifier for instrumentation was the basis of the Spectral. Richard was lucky in his own time to use the research laboratories of high tech companies in Silicon Valley. He worked with advanced test and measurement systems, from Hewlett Packard and others in the 70’s, years in which great strides in technology were made. He learned in practice that measuring is important, while his family taught him that in theory. But such measurements were not used for audio at that time, manufacturers grew up with old technology mostly from the tube age and the beginning of the transistor period. Richard looked al lot further and did research into microwaves, radar technology, the operation of computers and data transport. In short, using instrumentation technology in service of audio applications.
The scientific background of his parents and his environment as a whole taught him that our ear and brain together form a computer that deducts information, including information outside our hearing range. If that information is affected, colouring occurs. To avoid staining, a DC bandwidth of up to 1 MHz or beyond is needed. And a amplifier with rise times of 600uV/sec. Spectral was the first to come with a DC coupled amplifier, consisting of instrumentation parts.
Within Audio Advice they initially kept this indoors and did not tell the readers, because they would have been declared crazy. Such a large bandwidth is totally unnecessary as was thought back then. The whole idea of transient pure amplifiers was not yet alive. Only later would the audio industry and buyers of audio devices realize that accuracy within a system is the most important thing, objectively determined and measured to the reference. Richard is not an engineer himself, but has a broad interest and has many people around him who are engineers. With the influence of a father who once worked as a scientist, that is what drives him to look for the core.
The best
Which is the best amplifier, which features are important, that should be decided by the listener, Richard thinks. The starting point of Spectral is to look for the most faithful reproduction. For this Spectral uses its own recordings, recorded by Keith Johnson for Reference Recordings. Recordings as pure as possible, completely acoustic, without processing. Where the available acoustics are captured and used in simple microphone setups. Recordings ranging from small line-ups to large orchestras. Everything to ensure that the listener can search for sections in the recorded orchestras himself, just as a person can focus on a single speaker within a group of talking people. Something that is only possible if you can get very close to the live performance. Our brain and hearing are made to survive, that’s why we learn what natural sounds are, experience and understand them and store them in our memory as a reference.
MIT cabling
Why the close cooperation with MIT Cables? The surprising answer for your editor that Spectral is involved in the development of the specific MIT Spectral Ultralinear cables. This because of the need for signal cables with special networks for Spectral to prevent bandwidth problems, because oscillations in sources give problems when the frequency range extends to 1 MHz or higher, oscillations that can also occur in cables.
An installation built around Spectral amplifiers ultimately forms a system that requires a transmission line, with standards known to Spectral. Not following standards leads to coloring and according to Richard, the industry knows far too few of those standards. What many follow is cheap, simple and known technology while Spectral designs from an instrumentation philosophy. There is no one according to Richard who does what Spectral does like applying drivers in power amps with a bandwidth up to 50MHz. Those high speeds have to stay within the chain, otherwise you get problems outside that chain.
In a MIT cable, a network is applied that is normally found in the power amplifier. A network for short-circuiting counter energy generated by a moving loudspeaker coil in a magnetic field. Energy that can seriously deform an output stage. Even damage it. Spectral brings that network to where it belongs, close to the loudspeaker. Timing throughout the entire chain is of the utmost importance, including in the cables. Just as lightning illuminates and we perceive it visually, so our brain can register sudden, audible events in which it is not the amplitude that is important, but time. Our hearing reacts to start and stop moments. It is the transients that define our world, for example, that distinction between danger and no danger. We also distinguish whether the instrument sounds “real” or is an extract from the original. It is precisely the onset that determines what we listen to in our brain. If an amplifier is too slow, the start will be lost.
HDCD and Jitter
Spectral Inc. helps other audio manufacturers make their systems better. Speaker builders are helped with, among other things, time domain optimization. In the past, in cooperation with Reference Recordings MC elements were designed for third parties. Spectral also released the first digital device of American origin. Keith Johnson was at the cradle of high performance digital reproduction, think of his HDCD invention. Keith Johnson worked on both analog to digital conversion and vice versa: DA-AD. Think of Spectral’s SDR-1000 digital reference player. It was – in the USA – Spectral who discovered jitter as a phenomenon that can influence sound reproduction.
Richard Fryer and Spectral want to give the customer something to experience. If the customer – while listening – concludes that a product is superior, the customer will decide to buy it. At least: that is the idea or thought. A dealer should always be open minded during demos and offer Spectral in the optimal composition. In the 40 years of the company’s existence about 16.000 devices have been made by hand. Conveyors, robots, Spectral doesn’t give it a thought. Because of their long life, many of these devices are still in daily use. Thus, a Spectral is a decent investment: it holds it’s value.
To the question whether Spectral will also come with its own streamer, the answer is “no”. Seen through the eyes of Richard Fryer you can use a Spectral DA-converter if you want to use a streamer, but a CD is still better. Via Reference Recordings you can buy a CD, or retrieve a download, whatever the customer wants. But as Richard says: “A Spectral system only comes to its full glory with an LP or CD”.