Sidebar I
Discussion of Joseph Chow's design philosophy - by Victor Comerchero


Abstract
Joseph Chow's design philosophy and goals can be summed up as follows: to reduce component coloration to a minimum; to wed the clear virtues of tubes --greater musical flow following from a slower decay time; superior harmonic texture from bottom to top--to those characteristic of the best solid state equipment --superb S/N figures, low distortion, wonderful transient micro-detail retrieval; to produce a supremely open and transparent sound that emerges out of the blackest silence; to provide excellent customer value; to keep ever in mind that our goal is not to produce stunning sound but entrancing music; to make owners feel proud that they own Audio Horizons components; and finally to accomplish all this within the means of the average audiophile music lover.


The Inseparability of Materials and Circuits, an inseparability which can only be discovered and used to improve the sonic performance of the component and reduce its inherent coloration when the S/N figure is extremely high.
Joseph Chow's engineering specialty was small signal processing. Part of analysing small signals requires of one to look deeply into the circuit function, the materials used in it and the sonic goals to be achieved. By analysing these, especially the inherent sonic characteristics of the materials and components at every stage, Joseph seeks to harmonize the inherent characteristics of the materials used within the circuit design itself. This search for harmony between the materials used and their function within the overall architecture is what defines and distinguishes Audio Horizons designs. The focus is always on the sound characteristics inherent in the component parts themselves, and given their characteristics to achieve at an affordable price the highest quality and most musical sound possible.


Joseph seeks to lower the noise floor because lowering noise exposes the inherent sonic characteristics of the materials used, whether hardware, component part or internal wiring. No designer, no matter how fine his ear, can improve a design below the noise level for at that level, he cannot hear the difference between one material's sonic character and another, one circuit modification from another. Low noise permits the designer to hear more clearly the very fine sonic differences small component changes and slight circuit modifications make, and by painstaking design to eliminate residual component coloration to a minimum. Joseph also believes that reducing inherent coloration increases the owner's ability to tailor the sound to her preference by means of tubes, cables and ancillary equipment.


A belief in the extreme importance of low Signal-to-Noise figures, and a desire to achieve them without resort to the inherent compression and the loss of openness and transparency that results from using feedback to lower the noise floor.
Joseph Chow considers Signal-to-Noise to be among the two or three most critical parameters of sonic excellence. He argues that one can't hear micro detail below the noise floor. As a result, he believes a tube designer must first attempt to bridge the gap between solid-state designs with their low distortion and superior S/N figures and tube designs in these critical areas or sacrifice too much transient micro-detail retrieval in the process. Many tube designers achieve this narrowing between tubes and solid-state with elaborate feedback circuits. While the use of feedback does lower the noise floor, the elaborate circuits required to do so complicate the signal path and thus introduce signal compression. Thus while they gain in reducing S/N, designers who use feedback lose in sonic openness and transparency. Joseph, who shuns feedback, seeks to preserve an open and transparent sound that seems to emerge out of a black background, in part because he thinks such designs are more responsive to tailoring by means of tubes and ancillary equipment to the listener's taste; and in part because he believes this is how we hear live performances.


The goal is not to impress us with a sonic spectacular but to involve us more deeply in the nuances of the musical performance.
Real music, as anyone who has listened to it knows, is leaner and more nuanced than that reproduced by older tube designs; and more harmonically rich and musically flowing than even the best new-solid state designs can capture. What Joseph seeks is reproduction that permits us as experience the artist's musical interpretation as close to how he or she conceived it possible. This requires that the component be able to capture both the micro and macro detail of the music and to respond by means of dynamic shadings to the inherent drama contained in all music. Joseph believes that the inherent drama of music created by its graduated pianissimos and fortissimos can not now be captured by even the finest components. But beyond that, he believes that a component which uses feedback will inherently compress these ever changing dynamic shadings even more than required by present technology and thus diminish our emotional involvement in the music. Thus, in addition to all the other values we have previously discussed, Joseph's designs seek to capture the subtle and ever changing dramatic contrasts that all fine musicians achieve, summed up in the saying, "never play the same musical phrase the same way twice".


We at Audio Horizons are happy only if our $2000-$3000 components compare favorably with components costing two to five times more.
We believe music lovers and audiophiles come from all walks of life, and we believe a music lover should be able to purchase a superb sound system for less than it costs to buy a luxury sedan. We do not pretend that our present designs are the best we could develop were cost no object. But cost, for us, is an object. At the present time, we are not cost-no-object designers. That may come down the road. But not now. Now we want to produce superb products at real life prices, at prices that a great, great many audiophiles can afford without regret.