Warm, Smooth yet Transparent Amp


Hello All,
I am currently running an Arcam AVR300 for movies and music, 60/40 respectively. The music portion just isn't happening. Everything works but I'm not getting that "involved/pull you in" kind of feeling. I have gone through several pairs of speakers, Proac tablette 50, Triangle Titus 202, Von Schweikert VR1s and currently Vandersteen 1C. Since this is a wide array of speakers, I've come to the conclusion it must be the amplification.

So now I'm thinking of adding a 2 channel amp running out of the front channels "out". I don't like harsh, shrill highs, but rather a fuller, sweet sounding, yet transparent. Is this possible without spending several thousands of dollars? I am trying to keep it under 1200.00 so used but quality is what I'm hoping for. If Possible. I know that all of you knowledgeable people would have an answer.

I'm also running an Oppo 83 blu ray/cd. Dish K722 receiver for TV. Listen to FM, CDs and MP3 through the Oppo. I'm looking for all the things I have read about on these forums over the years. Good Imaging, transparency, involving. I've read good things about Conrad Johnson MF2250 (affordable used) and I just missed out on one on Ebay, earlier today. Now I'm just frustrated I guess.

Please assist if you can. Oh, I like folk rock, rock, certain new age kind of music. Examples, Dave Matthews, Eric Clapton, Sarah McLaughlin, and everything in between, *chuckle*. Any and All suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Bruce
denon53
Runnin,
Thanks for the input. I was running AQ type 4 from the beginning, when I first purchased my Arcam back in 2006. I used them up until about 5 months ago when I changed over to Canare 4s11. They seem a bit more mellow than the AQ.

I really think that going to tubes is the next logical move, whether it be a tube preamp or tube amp is still up in the air. Which is where I started. :) Has anyone heard or had any experience with Cary Rocket 88 amp? It's within my price point.
Keep your eyes open for a Music Reference RM10. Original series can be had for under $1k, but they don't come up often and they get snatched up quickly. Excellent amp for the money and fits the criteria in your original post. They're also very reliable and if by chance it does need to go in for service they're not that far from you, in Santa Barbara I believe.

Hopefully others will have suggestions, but under $1k will be tough. Also, keep in mind that for a "good" unit under $1k, you're probably looking at an older model so reliability will be an issue.
FWIW this is all about distortion. Solid state amps have a harshness due to trace amounts of odd ordered harmonics (5th and above) that the ear uses to sort out how loud a sound is. It is because of the latter fact that the human ear is very sensitive to these harmonics, and so even though they only show up in trace amounts (as far as our test equipment is concerned anyway) we hear it as harshness and brightness, even though the amp has a flat frequency response.

To get detail though you have to get rid of distortion, as the ear's masking principle means that distortion can block the presence of detail. This is why tubes are still here some 50 years on after being declared obsolete. They don't make those odd ordered harmonics in such great quantity, and so sound smoother.

You could say and rightly so that tubes more closely follow the rules of human hearing in this regard.

Now tubes can get bright too, like transistors, if you use a lot of loop negative feedback in the design (this is BTW one reason that transistors are bright- most transistor amps use feedback). Although feedback gets rid of some types of distortion, it does not do everything. This is because the amplifier circuit always has a propagation delay, a small but measurable length of time it takes for the signal to propagate from input to output.

Because of this the feedback signal is always arriving a little too late. As frequency is increased, this problem is exacerbated and results in trace amounts of odd ordered harmonics, which it is *supposed* to be getting rid of. You could add even more feedback, but you would need more gain in the amp to do that- IOW the carrot will always just slightly out of reach.

For this reason the smoothest sounding amps potentially will be ones that don't employ feedback.

When looking for smoothness and transparency, another way of describing this is linearity. When an amplifier is linear, it is low in distortion. But if it is to be low in distortion and lacking feedback, it will have to employ other techniques to keep distortion at bay.

One of these techniques is to use linear devices in the signal chain. Triodes are immediate and obvious choice. Another design feature that has long been known to be more linear is the class of operation- the most linear known is class A. Further, if the amp is fully balanced and differential throughout, it will be lacking the even ordered harmonics for which tubes are often faulted. Since these lower ordered harmonics usually have a lot more energy associated with them, they can obscure more detail although they add 'warmth'.

So there is a short list of features to look for- good luck and have fun!
Thanks Mark, I'll keep an eye out. Atmassphere, your explanation was amazing. Made total sense. Is it safe to assume that you are some type of audio engineer?

As my Mama use to say, "Try to learn something new every day" well I certainly did today. Thank you!

Bruce