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What makes the Bloom around instruments . . .

I recently tried a Pass XA30.5 amp in place of my Spectron Musician III Mk 2.

In my particular system, the Spectron outclassed the Pass in every category except one: that magical Bloom surrounding each instrument and vocal entity.

I really liked that Bloom and I would like to understand how and why it's there because it is something very special and I'd really like to have it again in addition to everything the Spectron brings.

Thanks,
Chuck
krell_man
rwwear
2,867 posts
 
The Pass is class "A"
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
Without looking into the tech details of your post I would've answered 'Skills and spirits of musicians'.
fas42
58 posts
 
For me, "Bloom" is just lower levels of unpleasant, low level distortion, which your ear has to try to ignore so that you enjoy the music. Virtually all systems inject a decent amount of this distortion, that classic dealer showroom "in your face" hifi quality has high levels of such.

The power supplies of Class A amps have a far easier job to do, so if all else is equal there will be less of this distortion, and more "Bloom".

Frank
Post removed 
fas42
58 posts
 
Elizabeth, I agree with your comments generally, except that I would say the amplifiers are not able to process the fine signal properly because of weaknesses, or problems, in the amplifier and its interaction with other components. Eliminate those weaknesses, and the amp will do its job fine.

And "general background haze" is just one of the audible indicators of, or ways of describing the unpleasant, low level distortion that seems to afflict most systems.

Frank
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