https://demografaudio.com/journal/ Announcements, reviews and measurements from the atelier. https://demografaudio.com/journal/how-to-read-an-amplifier-measurement-report/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/how-to-read-an-amplifier-measurement-report/ Sat, 07 Nov 2026 00:00:00 GMT Every Demograf Audio amplifier ships with its own measurement report, and a page of graphs can look like a wall of lines. This guide explains the common charts in plain words, using a published report on a Tantal headphone output as the worked example. It also sets out what a report cannot tell you before you choose. https://demografaudio.com/journal/hi-fi-loudspeakers-or-studio-monitors/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/hi-fi-loudspeakers-or-studio-monitors/ Sat, 07 Nov 2026 00:00:00 GMT Studio monitors and hi-fi loudspeakers do the same physical work, turning an electrical signal into sound, but they are made for different rooms and different jobs. This guide explains how each is used and what to check before you choose for a home listening room. The examples come from the specifications of the Demograf Audio loudspeakers. https://demografaudio.com/journal/demograf-endymion-vs-audio-note-ongaku/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/demograf-endymion-vs-audio-note-ongaku/ Thu, 29 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT The 211 and the 845 are transmitting triodes used in several single-ended amplifiers, among them the Audio Note Ongaku, a 211 integrated amplifier from Audio Note (UK). This guide puts the Demograf Endymion, which is built for the 845, the 211 or the 805, next to the Ongaku and its copper-wired sibling, the Jinro. It sets out circuit, tubes, power, outputs, size and how each is sold, using the makers' own published data, and then suggests how to decide. It does not rate the sound of any of them: we have not measured or listened to the Ongaku or the Jinro, and numbers on a data sheet do not settle how an amplifier sounds in your room. https://demografaudio.com/journal/single-driver-loudspeaker-placement/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/single-driver-loudspeaker-placement/ Thu, 29 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT A single-driver loudspeaker plays the whole range from one cone, with no crossover dividing it between drivers. That changes how it should be placed: the axis of one driver carries all of the treble, the type of cabinet decides how much space it needs behind it, and its modest bass depends on the walls more than a large multi-way design does. This guide covers distance from the walls, toe-in, height and listening distance for full-range loudspeakers, with the facts about our single-driver model, Perseus MkII. Why one driver is used at all, and how it compares with a multi-way design, is explained in our guide to single-driver and multi-way loudspeakers. https://demografaudio.com/journal/master-clock-for-a-dac/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/master-clock-for-a-dac/ Thu, 29 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Every digital source and every DAC keeps time with a clock: an oscillator that tells the circuit when to read, send and convert each sample. An external master clock is a separate unit that supplies this timing reference to the rest of the system over a cable. This guide explains what jitter is, how an external clock connects, which equipment can use one, and when a system does not need it. It ends with the facts about Charon, our master clock. https://demografaudio.com/journal/balanced-or-single-ended-inputs/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/balanced-or-single-ended-inputs/ Thu, 29 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Most tube amplifiers and DACs arrive with RCA sockets, and many can be ordered with XLR as well. The two connectors carry the same music in different ways: an RCA lead is a single-ended, or unbalanced, connection, and an XLR lead is usually a balanced one. This guide explains what the difference does, when it matters in a home system, which Demograf Audio models have which connections, and what to check before you choose. https://demografaudio.com/journal/demograf-tantal-vs-stax-srm-t8000-blue-hawaii-se/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/demograf-tantal-vs-stax-srm-t8000-blue-hawaii-se/ Thu, 29 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Electrostatic headphones need an amplifier that most hi-fi systems do not have: a high, fixed bias voltage and an audio signal of several hundred volts on each stator. This guide puts the Demograf Tantal next to the STAX SRM-T8000 and the HeadAmp Blue Hawaii SE, three amplifiers with tubes in the signal path. It sets out what each is, its outputs, size, price and warranty, from published data, and then suggests how to decide. It does not rate the sound: we have not measured or listened to the SRM-T8000 or the Blue Hawaii SE. https://demografaudio.com/journal/demograf-atlas-vs-western-electric-91e/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/demograf-atlas-vs-western-electric-91e/ Thu, 29 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Two single-ended 300B integrated amplifiers can look alike on a spec sheet and still be built for different listeners. This guide puts the Demograf Atlas next to the Western Electric 91E, both class A single-ended amplifiers on the 300B triode that can drive loudspeakers and headphones. It sets out power, outputs, size, price and what each maker includes, using the makers' own published data, and then suggests how to decide. It does not rate the sound of either: we have not measured or listened to the 91E, and numbers on a data sheet do not settle how an amplifier sounds in your room. https://demografaudio.com/journal/tube-amplifier-for-classical-music/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/tube-amplifier-for-classical-music/ Mon, 26 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Classical music is the hardest test of a system’s honesty. A string quartet asks for the grain of gut strings and the air of a small hall; a Mahler symphony asks for an orchestra that can rise from a single held note to a full tutti in seconds; a piano recital asks for both at once. A tube amplifier can serve this music very well, but only when its power, its output stage and the loudspeakers it drives are chosen together. This guide explains what classical music asks of an amplifier, how to work out how many watts you need, when a 2 W single-ended amplifier is enough, and how single-ended and push-pull designs suit orchestral, chamber, vocal and piano music. https://demografaudio.com/journal/what-a-tube-amplifier-costs/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/what-a-tube-amplifier-costs/ Mon, 26 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Ask how much a tube amplifier costs and the honest answer is a question in return: which one, and built how? Tube amplifiers are sold as kits, as factory products and as pieces made to order one at a time, and the prices differ many times over. The tube on the front panel explains only a small part of that. This guide sets out what the price of a tube amplifier is made of, how the main kinds of amplifier differ, what a 300B amplifier costs, and what our own amplifiers cost and why. https://demografaudio.com/journal/demograf-audio-listening-circle/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/demograf-audio-listening-circle/ Sun, 18 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Some people hear a Demograf Audio system and wonder why anyone would wait six months or longer for an amplifier. Others hear the same system and start writing to the atelier about their room and the records they play. This article is about the second group: the circle of listeners that has formed around Dmitriy Gubchenko’s work since 1998, what holds it together, and why we are comfortable saying that this sound is not for everyone. https://demografaudio.com/journal/single-ended-vs-push-pull/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/single-ended-vs-push-pull/ Sun, 18 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Every tube amplifier has to settle one question at its output: does a single tube carry the whole music signal, or do two tubes share it? The answer divides tube amplifiers into single-ended and push-pull designs, and it shapes their power, their distortion, their weight and the loudspeakers they suit. This guide explains the difference in plain terms, describes how each is commonly heard, and sets out how we build our own amplifiers. https://demografaudio.com/journal/point-to-point-wiring/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/point-to-point-wiring/ Sun, 18 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Look inside a hand-built tube amplifier and you may find no circuit board in the signal path at all: resistors and capacitors soldered to tube sockets, terminal strips and one another, with wires running between them. This is point-to-point wiring. This guide explains what the term means, how it compares with printed circuit boards and with turret or tag boards, what layout and grounding have to do with it, and what we document about how Demograf Audio amplifiers are built. https://demografaudio.com/journal/electrostatic-vs-planar-headphones/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/electrostatic-vs-planar-headphones/ Sun, 18 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Electrostatic and planar magnetic headphones have one thing in common: both drive a thin, light diaphragm across its whole surface instead of pushing a cone from a voice coil at its centre. There the likeness ends. They work on different physical principles and present an amplifier with almost opposite loads. One needs a bias supply and hundreds of volts; the other needs current and power into a low impedance. This guide explains both principles, what each asks of an amplifier, and which Demograf Audio amplifiers are built for each. https://demografaudio.com/journal/single-driver-vs-multi-way/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/single-driver-vs-multi-way/ Sun, 18 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Every loudspeaker has to cover about ten octaves, from deep bass to the top of the audible range. One school gives the whole job to a single full-range driver; the other divides it between two or more drivers with a crossover. Our Perseus MkII in its single-driver form and Cassandra MkII stand on either side of that line. This guide explains how each approach works, what it gains and what it gives up, and how each pairs with a single-ended triode (SET) amplifier. https://demografaudio.com/journal/otl-vs-transformer-coupled/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/otl-vs-transformer-coupled/ Sun, 18 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Almost every tube amplifier has an output transformer between its tubes and its loudspeaker terminals. A small family of designs, called OTL, leaves it out. This guide explains what an OTL amplifier is, why tubes normally need a transformer at all, how OTL designs manage without one and what that costs, and why every tube amplifier from Demograf Audio is built with output transformers. https://demografaudio.com/journal/300b-vs-845/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/300b-vs-845/ Sun, 18 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Choosing a single-ended amplifier usually starts with the output tube, and the question asked most often is simple: 300B or 845? Our guide to power triodes for single-ended amplifiers describes each type and how it is commonly heard. This guide is its practical companion. It compares the 45, 2A3 and 300B with the 845, 211 and 805 on the points that decide what you will live with: output power, drive requirements, supply voltage, filament heating, loudspeaker sensitivity, room size, heat, weight and safety. https://demografaudio.com/journal/tube-output-stage-dac/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/tube-output-stage-dac/ Sun, 18 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT A tube DAC is almost never a converter in which tubes do the converting. The step from numbers to an analogue signal happens in a silicon chip. The tubes, when there are any, sit after it, in the output stage that turns the chip’s raw output into a signal an amplifier can use. This guide explains what that stage does, what changes when it uses tubes instead of transistors, and why a tube buffer in a master clock is a different thing altogether. https://demografaudio.com/journal/gm-70-813-811-transmitting-tubes/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/gm-70-813-811-transmitting-tubes/ Sun, 18 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Some of the most powerful single-ended amplifiers are built on tubes that were never designed for music: transmitting tubes, made for radio transmitters. This guide explains what a transmitting tube is and looks at three types that appear in single-ended (SET) amplifiers: the GM-70, the 813 and the 811 family. It covers how each is used, what it asks of the driver stage, what living with supplies around 1 kV means, and how Demograf Audio uses these tubes. For the 845, 211 and 805 and the small triodes, see our guides to power triodes for single-ended amplifiers and choosing between the 300B and the 845. https://demografaudio.com/journal/wooden-amplifier-chassis-wood-species/ https://demografaudio.com/journal/wooden-amplifier-chassis-wood-species/ Sun, 18 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Clients often ask what a Demograf Audio amplifier, DAC or preamplifier is actually made of. Inside are tubes, transformers, capacitors and wire; around them, in many of our pieces, is a wooden chassis. These are the seven woods we work with: Fergana cherry, Transcaucasian beech, Tian Shan maple, Charyn ash, Semirechye oak, Alatau walnut and Kirghiz birch. Each bears the name of a landscape in the country that runs from the Caucasus to the Tian Shan and the Seven Rivers of Semirechye. Five are native trees of the Tian Shan and its foothills; the beech belongs to the mountain forests of the Caucasus; and the oak, as we explain below, is a European tree long at home in the parks and avenues of Semirechye. This article describes where each grows, what kind of timber it gives, and what a wooden chassis can and cannot do for the sound.