The ModBlog
Audiophile Nervosa
When you sit down to listen to your system, are you anlyzing or enjoying? As audiophiles, we all start off in search of better sound. We had an initial experience that imprinted upon us. We heard music sound better than we thought possible. This led us down the rabbit hole, into the audiophile world. We…
Black Friday Sale!
Black Friday Sale! 11.24.25 – 11.30.25. Receive a complimentary Reference umbilical with the purchase of any new PH 9.0, PH 9.0X or PH 9.0XT phono stage (U.S. only). 20% off all ‘X’ and ‘T’ PH 9.0 upgrades. Please call to inquire about show demo and B-stock units. Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving from everyone at…
What if vinyl was all we had?
Maybe I am just getting old-er, but who isn’t? I find myself leaning into things that make me smile. I am tired of chasing perfect digital sound, new technology, jitter reduction, etc. I do listen to digital and it is great. However, I find myself just grabbing a record these days, when I want to…
Solid State Power Amplifier Design – Our Approach
We have designed tube and solid state amplifiers over the years. I have explored conventional approaches in both tube and solid state design. In all amplifier designs, I found that the simplest and most elegant solution is best. By challenging conventions, we have found or own solutions. Excluding global negative feedback allows us to streamline…
LS 300 Preamp Design
In the last post, I discussed the important elements of a good preamp and what I feel is important, as well as the design elements that I consider key to good sound and performance. Enter the LS 300, our Reference Balanced tube preamplifier. As stated previously, I prefer a preamp to have lean functions and…
Tube Preamplifiers – My thoughts…
I prefer to design tube preamplifiers and solid-state amplifiers. The reason for this is simple. Tubes amplify voltage. Transistors amplify current. So, what is the purpose of a preamp? In modern terms, it is a simpler function than it used to be. Today’s sources have adequate gain to drive most amplifiers to full volume. Audiophiles…
The Story of the Analog Bridge
So, what is an Analog Bridge https://www.modwright.com/products/analog-bridge/, and where did it come from? The Analog bridge provides a unity gain tube circuit, with three modes of adjustment, allowing you to tailor the tone of the sound to suit your system and taste. It has a high input impedance and extremely low output impedance, allowing it…
PH 150S Reference Tube Phono…how we do it!
The PH 150S https://www.modwright.com/products/ph-150/ is our Reference Tube phono stage. It is high gain, low noise and extremely high performance. Every part of the deisgn, layout and implemenation are key to it success. I will explain how we do it and why it works. The PH 150S provides 78dB max MC gain, has resistive and…
Why tube phono stages? Because…no tubes, no magic!
When it comes to analog, I love designing tube phono stages! But why tubes? First of all, “No Tubes, No Magic”. Tube simply provide tone, celebrate harmonics and produce sound that is organic and to my ears, sounds like music. By comparison, a SS phono stage sounds to me like the information has been processed,…
Vinyl is the answer…
Lately I have been listening to a lot of records! I am not anti-digital. I listen to streaming content all day long. But, at the end of the day, I really just want to put a record on and relax. I have considered this before and wondered why vinyl is more relaxing for me than…