
NwAvGuy: The Audio Genius Who Vanished (2014) - monort
http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/profiles/nwavguy-the-audio-genius-who-vanished
======
apohn
I used to be fairly active on a popular Headphone Forum, both before and after
NwAvGuy appeared and disappeared on that forum.

Nobody with a real engineering background and strong belief in the scientific
process could actively participate in that community and maintain a healthy
state of mind. Lots of people simply cannot let go of the possibility that
maybe they cannot actually hear they things they claim they can, and there is
a severe psychological bias to supporting people's fancies, spending, and
quests for "perfection."

NwAvGuy is unique in that he tried to educate (and was very adamant about
this) the community and designed a superior and relatively inexpensive DAC/Amp
to show people that many other people building eqiupment were full of crap.
And because of this I think somebody would have tried to harm him if he ever
revealed his identity - I'm not exaggerating.

There were/are a lot of people who tried to help on that forum by presenting
general engineering principles and sensible methodologies (e.g. volume
matching) for testing. And eventually they all stopped participating because
any push towards a scientific methodology was responded to with vitriol and
hate.

So I'm not surprised he just vanished. I used to get attacked for asking the
most basic questions (e.g. did you try to volume match when comparing two
amps). I can't imagine the hell he went through. Why would you tolerate that
hostility for a hobby?

------
Tobold
Is it really a violation of the ND clause to PRODUCE something from a changed
version of the "SOURCE CODE" (so to speak)? As long as the changed version is
not being distributed...?

------
keithpeter
Quote from the 'details' page [1]

 _" Perfboard DIY – Don’t try this! While a basic Cmoy might work cobbled
together on perfboard or protoboard the O2 is different. The higher
performance and greater complexity mean you’ll almost certainly have problems
without using a proper PC board."_

Does anyone have any insight into the nature of the problems that might result
from a quick lash up on Veroboard?

PS: the comment made in the OA about the verbosity of NwAvGuy certainly struck
a chord!

~~~
VLM
Section 2-29 of:

[http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/07/o2-design-
process.html](http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/07/o2-design-process.html)

And the entire article at:

[http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/05/virtual-
grounds-3-channe...](http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/05/virtual-
grounds-3-channel-amps.html)

Its easy to make something that amplifies, but he's trying to make something
that provides specs maybe 10x to 10000x better than human hearing can detect,
which is much harder. You can build something that outputs 0.1% THD and you
won't be able to hear it, but he wants (wanted?) to build to 0.001% THD and
he's got the rather expensive test equipment required to prove it.

JDS labs sells a PCB for less than the cost of shipping (you'll spend more on
UPS than on the board) or a full parts kit for $60. This has been around for
years and I've been tempted but haven't built one. I just checked JDS and its
still in production and in stock. Being CC- licensed there are probably other
places to get PCBs and kits.

~~~
keithpeter
_" Let’s take a quick detour and look at vibration damping. Vacuum tubes, and
certain components in very high gain circuits like phono preamps, can be
“microphonic”—vibrations can affect them in audible and measurable ways"_

OK, I'll do the reading (verbose-ness!).

The quote above makes a degree of sense - I can remember valve based consumer
electronics and having fun with the microphonics. Dad used a piece of dowling
with a grommet on the end to check for valves that 'rang' so he could replace
them.

------
dkbrk
According to whois he's still around as of 2015:

    
    
       Domain Name: NWAVGUY.COM
       Registrar: 1 & 1 INTERNET AG
       Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 83
       Whois Server: whois.1and1.com
       Referral URL: http://1and1.com
       Name Server: NS57.1AND1.COM
       Name Server: NS58.1AND1.COM
       Status: ok https://www.icann.org/epp#OK
       Updated Date: 10-mar-2015
       Creation Date: 09-mar-2007
       Expiration Date: 09-mar-2016

~~~
GSegbar
So come March 9th and if it doesn't expire, we'll know somebody is taking care
of things.

------
irixusr
I was very pleased yesterday to see someone posted one of his articles. When I
first discovered him a few years ago I read them with great enthusiasm; all
the electrical theory I learned came together and clicked (for audio anyways)

------
crikli
I was recently in the home of an old friend who reps for a few ultra high end
audio companies. The entry level speakers were $30k. The mids, $90k. The 700lb
top shelf models? $220k.

Some things exist purely so they can have their purchase price shared and in
the instance of high end audio, I can only imagine the margins involved.

If this guy made the waves the article implies then someone in the industry
tracked him down and incentivized him to go away.

~~~
overcast
While I'll agree that just about any decently made amplifier of the same power
level, is just the same as the next. Speakers certainly do sound different.
$220,000 different? Probably not, but out of every piece of audiophile stuff
that is mostly hocus pocus, a set of speakers make the biggest difference.
When it comes to solid state components, it's just all parts everyone else is
using. The processing features are just about the only thing that separate
them.

~~~
crikli
Probably not? _Definitely_ not. At damn near a quarter mil for speakers you're
way beyond the what the human ear can detect on the curve of diminishing
returns.

We agree though about speakers and the quick win they represent. They're like
your car's tires, the primary interface between you and the medium, and an
upgrade is the lowest hanging fruit.

~~~
overcast
Cost is irrelevant honestly, it's just an entirely different market. Just like
hyper cars. Are the Zondas, Ageras, and Venenos worth $2+ million. Of course
they aren't. You're paying for the prestige and image. Price is just what
someone is willing to pay for.

~~~
crikli
Once the conversation shifts from performance to prestige and image, you're
back to my original statement, which is about something existing primarily to
have its purchase price shared.

Your car example is perfect. If performance was the _only_ metric the buyer of
a Pagani cared about, he'd have bought a ZR-1 Corvette. But because anyone
with a six figure income and a 730+ FICO can buy a Vette, the gazillionaire
buys the Pagani, something that exists (in part) because it projects the
buying capability of it's owner.

------
mring33621
The solution is simple: 1) make your design changes 2) email the NwAvGuy with
your plans and a requested deadline of 30 days for a response 3) if he does
not respond negatively by the deadline, feel free to proceed with your plans
4) NwAvGuy may then choose to pursue legal means of enforcing his strange
license choice, or not

I'm betting not.

------
CyberDildonics
This is an advertisement - Any time there is a model number or a price in an
article it has been placed by someone who paid to have the article written.

EDIT - I guess people don't understand why they see articles like this when
they do.

~~~
kabdib
I just read a bunch (more) about audio design, which I find very interesting.
As a software engineer who is getting an electronics lab together, after a 40
year hiatus, things like this are worthwhile.

Definitely beats another hiring thread on HN :-)

