2. amps-preamps
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Is there actually a difference?

Speakers sound different - that is very obvious. But I’ve never experienced a drastic change between amps. Disclaimer that I’ve never personally ABX tested any extremely high end gear.

With all these articles claiming every other budget amp is a "giant killer", I’ve been wondering if there has ever been blind tests done with amplifiers to see if human ears can consistently tell the difference. You can swear to yourself that they do sound different, but the mind is a powerful thing, and you can never be sure unless it’s a truly blind test.

One step further - even IF we actually can tell the difference and we can distinguish a certain amp 7/10 times under extreme scrutiny, is it really worth the thousands you are shelling out to get that nearly-imperceivable .01% increase in performance?

Not looking to stir up any heated debate. I’ve been in audio for several years now and have always thought about this.
asianatorizzle
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ejr1953
912 posts
 
I agree with others who have said "it depends on the speaker".

In my travels, I stopped at a dealer and auditioned a Magico floor standing speaker at first driven by a solid state power amp with a very high damping factor; it seemed in that setup the Magicos needed to be driven pretty hard to "come to life".  When the other sound room became available, the salesman moved the Magicos and played them with a powerful tube amp and to me, they sounded significantly more "musical", had better bass and didn't sound so "in your face".

As I've moved up the line with my equipment, it seems that it's the "synergy" of all the components in the chain that seems most important.
soix
9,456 posts
 
+1 @ejr on synergy. 

"SS amplification (pre and power) reached such a high level of development over the past three decades that competing units are functionally and sonically equivalent."

Well that’s just plain silly.

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genesis777
112 posts
 
I’ve tested several and I couldn’t tell any difference and I was trying
to hear a difference.. I did testing between Krell and Red Dragon mono amps and couldn’t tell the difference between them either other than the Dragons had better bass slam. Same thing with DAC’S, the difference was negligible between a $1k DAC and $4k one.
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