You’ll be refering to them as condensers next !
I still call them that 
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Or Kondensator.
I remember as a kid of maybe 7 or so finding an old broken valve radio among some dumped rubbish. I remember taking interesting buts off it, snd was fascinated by the variable capacitor so that was one bit I took.home. That, and watching my dad changing valves on our home radio, and taking the back of the TV to try to fix it when something went wrong was what got ne interested in electronics…
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Those rotating plates help to show 1) how it works and 2) why the capacitance varies.
Indeed.
Some of the ‘Why oh why can’t these scientists pull their fingers out and invent something better?’ comments above seem to be missing that fact that the laws of physics, the periodic table and the nature of the universe are remarkably reluctant to change.
Mind you, it’s 2025 and I’m still waiting for my George Jetson hovercar. At this stage, I’d even settle for a Marty McFly hoverboard. What on earth are these so-called scientists doing all day?
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Quite…
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I have reinstated my Sonneteer Orton integrated which has not been used for more than 5 years after reading this thread and am happy to report that it still works fine. However, the listening experience this time is different from previous years. The character of the amp has somewhat changed. Based on this experience, I can now surmise that one can not simply judge the character of an amp or any other component in a system based on one single experience. The amp can sound very different even though the system is in the same room, I’ll explain on this in a minute.
There are several factors that may contribute to the different character of the Sonneteer amp. Firstly, the speaker placement has changed, previously on the short wall, distance between speakers 1.7m and close to side walls. Speakers are now on the long wall placed about 2.3m apart and a lot of space from side walls. Secondly, it may be the Furutech DPS4.1 mains power cable connected to the amp. Thirdly, it may be the Chord Sarum T speaker cables which cost 7 times more than the price I paid for the amp. Lastly, it may be optimised by the rack it’s sitting on which is a Solid Teck Rack of Silence with Cerapuc footers. That’s all I can think of at the moment.
Despite all the costly cables connected to the amp, the interconnects are cheap since it’s the only RCA cable I have. All my good costly interconnects are in XLR plugs.
The sound is not perfect but it’s a presentation that is lively and full of energy. There is a tube-like glow in the treble which doesn’t seem to be present in the Gryphon and Luxman amps. There is good rhythm and the midbass has good punch when compared to the weaker bass of the Luxman and tighter, deeper and more defined bass of the Gryphon.
This lesson has taught me to not discount other cheap amps as unworthy. The Sonneteer Orton may not be perfect and has its flaws but at its price point it is delivering a high quality sound. I guess I”ll need to reinstate the Naim amps sooner or later to reassess their performance. I’m now expecting much more from the Gryphon Diablo 300 after this recent experience and will attempt to optimise the setup and troubleshoot any aspects which may be hampering the performance of the amp. The Finite Elemente Cerabase footers replacing the Cerapucs will be the first attempt as the total weight of the rack with all components has now gone above the limit of the Cerapucs.
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