What makes the Bloom around instruments . . .

I grew up in the tube days,and there are descriptive words that are being used now,that's different from what I've learned.The best way that I know of on how to describe a lot of these words that are used,is to have two different amps,one that has a lot of the characteristic,the other, very little.This was how I learned them,hanging around audio stores,since I was little.Basically it captures all the warmth,timbre,air,and the 3d imaging,full body of an instrument,hardly anything lacking.Upper end SS amps do capture more of it now,but not quite as much as a tube amp does,at least in my opinion.I may be wrong on my description.Threads like these are hard to post on,because the way the descriptions seen to very more and more.A person that's fairly new to audio,will start using these descriptive words,on what they think they are,and it may very.One audio dealer(in hi-end),that was around since the tube days, caught me of guard.He asked me this when tube amps started returning,what does the word liquid mean,that you tube amp guys tend to use.He asked me,because he knew I wouldn't embarrass him.It took a while,but I came in there with an old Dynaco(full of liquid),a old Nad(dry),and a couple of old recordings that had some instruments that were recorded on gear,that was real liquid sounding.He got it right from the beginning,just nobody ever compared it to him.He said he felt dumb,and seem embarrassed,should have known,but was relieved to know for sure.He was familiar the sound difference of it,but didn't want to use that word until somebody assured him.

Pardon the night grammar.

Hello,
Frogman that was an excellent description of what`s called bloom. It`s most certainly a function of harmonic overtone/fundamental tones and when captured is utterly beautiful. It makes music sound more realistic,thus less canned and sterile. It is a reflection of a component`s noise floor and ability to retrieve low level detail/resolution. How the Pass amp can do this well yet bury the organ in the musical track as the OP stated seems very strange, as preserving the bloom quaility is the more elusive trait.

I don't have anything by Dire Straits to hear that particular organ with the Pass XA200.5.

But I would say that the organ and choir at the end of Mahler #2 would leave you speechless and sobbing uncontrollably.

I guess that a more specific explaination is in order here. It seems that there's a lot of confusion with what I said or how I said it.

In my system, with my Wadia S7i directly feeding the Pass XA30.5 via $5,000.00 interconnects, then out to my $15,000.00 custom modified speakers and Duelund outboard crossovers via $6,500.00 speaker cables, the Pass XA30.5 was heavily bloated whereas the Spectron Musician III Mk2 was precise.

The XA30.5 had a strong bass and good high frequency extension, BUT, the instrument that was so prominent that it was masking everything else was the drums.

I said that the organ was masked and I couldn't hear it because I play keyboards. I know that the organ is in the song. But the organ was not the only thing missing or covered over by the drums. The quiet guitar parts at the end of the song were also unheard. Everything besides the drums was a lot quieter and covered up due to the drums being so prominent.

The only time that I heard the Bloom is during quiet or non-complex passages. During complex passages the drums were smacking my head against the wall.

Also, I don't listen at very loud volumes. I'm in a 10' x 12.5' room with the speakers 4' from my ears. I have the dip switches on the Wadia set to attenuate the output by -18 db so that I can open up the Wadia's volume to the recommended level without blowing my ears out.

I'm not saying anything against the Pass other than what it was doing in my system in my room.

Chuck