The smallest receivers and integrateds from all the lines tended to be the best sounding. Luxman, Yamaha, pioneer, you name it, the smallest lowest powered are easily the best sounding. Less is more.
The big clue (back in the day) was in the Bryston line up, the original one. The circuit was the same across the three amplifiers, but scaled. 2b, 3b, 4b. 60w/120w/200w. the 2b was always the best sounding.
Less parts, less circuitry, less damage to the signal. Less is more. Part of the secret of tube circuits - they have a low parts count by their very nature (part of the story only, but definitely important).
Then, some companies made maximum versions of simple circuits.
Some of the more modern integrateds are similar to that.
If you see a big impressive box with what looks like a cool pile of a near thousand parts, tons of circuit boards, with tiny tiny parts by the hundreds per board... then it is probably (almost certainly) going to be ’not so good’. Even if it is $10k.
And the AVRs? Almost a 100% chance they are at the bottom of the sound quality pile.
500watt 100 pound 80 transistor monoblock? Sonically? In comparison to the sonic quality of a 20 watt el84 tube amp? Somewhere near a 100% chance the giant monoblock is a sonic dog in comparison.
No one wants to hear that, even it if is true. The standard ’pick any two’ scenario(sound quality/wattage/price).
The fight to try and get all three, is where we all sit. With the right kind of mind and the right kind of design, we can get pretty darned close to having a functional three. Or at least find a compromise that works for us individually.
Individual tastes and individually built up hearing and self wiring of our hearing.... can convince the given individual... that this basic recipe has somehow been violated in their favor... or that the recipe and known parameters of the quandary are not true.
But it is true, this given audio quality quandary of all things not being available -at all times in all ways. A personal fit for one self wired (we wire our own hearing as we grow into it) individual is not a perfect fit for others.
I’ve torn down and rebuilt/repaired/re-thought somewhat more than 500 and less than a thousand pieces of high quality audio gear, over the years. Many of them, in step by step single cause analysis procedure and mind, while listening. With an ear and mind that grew more and more informed and capable, day by day. Feverish OCD of the highest order. The end result is... I’d call mine a seemingly well informed opinion.
The big clue (back in the day) was in the Bryston line up, the original one. The circuit was the same across the three amplifiers, but scaled. 2b, 3b, 4b. 60w/120w/200w. the 2b was always the best sounding.
Less parts, less circuitry, less damage to the signal. Less is more. Part of the secret of tube circuits - they have a low parts count by their very nature (part of the story only, but definitely important).
Then, some companies made maximum versions of simple circuits.
Some of the more modern integrateds are similar to that.
If you see a big impressive box with what looks like a cool pile of a near thousand parts, tons of circuit boards, with tiny tiny parts by the hundreds per board... then it is probably (almost certainly) going to be ’not so good’. Even if it is $10k.
And the AVRs? Almost a 100% chance they are at the bottom of the sound quality pile.
500watt 100 pound 80 transistor monoblock? Sonically? In comparison to the sonic quality of a 20 watt el84 tube amp? Somewhere near a 100% chance the giant monoblock is a sonic dog in comparison.
No one wants to hear that, even it if is true. The standard ’pick any two’ scenario(sound quality/wattage/price).
The fight to try and get all three, is where we all sit. With the right kind of mind and the right kind of design, we can get pretty darned close to having a functional three. Or at least find a compromise that works for us individually.
Individual tastes and individually built up hearing and self wiring of our hearing.... can convince the given individual... that this basic recipe has somehow been violated in their favor... or that the recipe and known parameters of the quandary are not true.
But it is true, this given audio quality quandary of all things not being available -at all times in all ways. A personal fit for one self wired (we wire our own hearing as we grow into it) individual is not a perfect fit for others.
I’ve torn down and rebuilt/repaired/re-thought somewhat more than 500 and less than a thousand pieces of high quality audio gear, over the years. Many of them, in step by step single cause analysis procedure and mind, while listening. With an ear and mind that grew more and more informed and capable, day by day. Feverish OCD of the highest order. The end result is... I’d call mine a seemingly well informed opinion.