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Here's a piano that will warm you up!

https://www.adamshifi.com/pianist.html

Ian

What is it?

It's a tube amp. Using google translate:

An amplifier for the pianist who likes art case pianos but only has a digital keyboard!

I had the same question.

Thanks.

Tube amps provide a very warm sound, hence the OP's reference to "warming you up". I personally prefer a neutral amp, but there's no doubting a piano-shaped one is very cool.

Very interesting. I’m old enough that my first electronic troubleshooting job, I was assigned to the oscilloscope calibrate and repair section. We were still fixing ancient oscilloscopes because the field groups had money to repair existing equipment instead of buying newer stuff with transistors. Also because we were still deep in the Cold War, transistors would be destroyed but vacuum tubes would still work after a nuclear blast. Of course who would still be able to operate a tube oscilloscope after a nuclear blast was the question nobody bothered to answer? The process of testing vacuum tubes was tedious and troubleshooting analog systems containing vacuum tubes was even more tedious. I prayed for the day of all digital circuitry. I know audiophiles love the analog sound delivered by vacuum tubes but for me the only analog I want to deal with is an acoustic piano.

But that amp is seriously cute.

Interesting post, j&j, especially the bit about nuclear blast effects!

Although I love good sound quality and will happily spend on quality audio equipment (though haven't been tempted by a tube amp, as alluded to in my other post), I find "audiophile" to be a bit of a loaded term given the amount of snake oil in that industry and attendant magical thinking/self-delusion among some consumers, so I don't generally use it to describe myself.

I am a proud audiophile, and I don't care how much people heap derision on me for my passion. That snake oil slur gets old after a while. There are a lot of great amplifiers being built, and they sound excellent, I own one. I've been putting together two channel systems for decades, and I have enjoyed the pursuit of better sound. Audiophilia is a gentle pursuit, nobody gets hurt, just some money gets spent, as pointed out in this article: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/c...er-an-expensive-new-years-shopping-guide

I prefer acoustic pianos and guitars, though, and was not happy when I connected my P-515 to my stereo, partly because the keyboard would have to replace the couch, and that wasn't going to happen. So, I can stream from over a hundred thousand CDs, and I can play my acoustic pianos and guitars, it's kind of the best of both worlds for me.

At one point, I worked at a government think tank and spoke with a woman who wrote up plans that would be used after successive nuclear volleys had been traded with our enemy. I was in her office once, and I burst out laughing at the thought that any of the things she had written up would be able to be carried out after multiple exchanges of nuclear weapons. She got very angry with me and that was the end of our friendship. See Dr. Strangelove for context, lol.

It depends though doesn't it. Technically, I am an audiophile too. I have spent a ton on Naim equipment with ATC speakers, portable players, headphones, IEMs etc. But the snake oil term is used with good reason because, while you can spend a lot of money on nice hardware, some people also spend thousands on speaker wire, or on a range of utterly ridiculous audiophile products like this, or this, or this, or this!

I wish there were a term that distinguished between being into sound reproduction while still not believing in magic.

Nah ... the "warning you up" is alluding the the massive amounts of heat thrown off by the valves running in class A

Paul.

Oh, sure, some people in the audiophile world get a bit nutty to try to achieve gains that are a product of their imaginations, but most audiophiles know what moves the needle the most. For me, I knew that upgrading my old 1970s vintage 90w Class A amplifier would do that, and when I saw the chance to buy my dream amplifier, I did it.

My 2000s era amplifier that puts out 160W, Class A, and weighs 80kgs/175lbs is just amazing to listen to, and it beats my old amplifier hands down. It is not about playing loud, I don't play loud, it is about playing clean, and rendering individual instruments in a realistic way. I've had music teachers tell me how they heard things in their favorite recordings that they had never heard before. They also thought the amplifier was a third speaker, lol, so I guess they were perceiving the sound stage.

I was thinking of building a 15W Class A valve amp but really would need a 24W Class AB to drive my newly self-built 97dB efficient transmission line floor standing speakers. I loved your story about oscilloscope calibrating and repair. It reminded me of my use, for CNC maintenance, of a Hewlett Packard twin storage scope back in the 1970s. Before that I nearly killed myself as an apprentice when fiddling around with Lissajous figures on a special Philips oscilloscope. Unknown to me it was set up to test platinum thermocouples and for this purpose one output terminal was at 240V! That was when I had my first lesson to keep one hand in my pocket. (Not so good for playing piano!).
Ian

Funny that. I worked with a Canadian guy who told me he had interviewed with a company that built high voltage transmission lines. He noticed everyone on the shop floor walking around with one hand in their pockets. He asked why, and was told, of course, that, if you touched something that was live, the current would travel up your arm and out your leg, and you would live. If you connected the current through your heart, you would die, it was as simple as that, as you know.

It can just takes 35m.a. across your chest and its goodbye Merry Christmas!
Ian

This could just as well mean your system is emphasizing certain frequencies "normal" systems are not.

If my TV made yellow colours "pop" more than other TVs, that probably means it's out of calibration.

And I sure hope directors don't use my TV to produce their films. If they did, they would end up with washed out yellows.

Words on the internet being fart in the wind and all, but I think audiophilia is much like bitcoin: few people really like it, but it's probably fraud.

No, he was comparing his experience of listening to recordings on a low fidelity, cheap, consumer grade system, and listening on my high fidelity, high end system. My system is not emphasizing certain frequencies, it is able to render multiple instrumental voices more clearly than a cheap system. It's not fraud, the difference is easily detectable during normal listening.

Also vacuum tubes do run pretty hot that’s why I snickered about a tube amps warmth.