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All Amps Sound the Same....

A guy posted this on another forum:

"This is my other expensive hobby and while I agree with you about low end receivers, once you get to mid-priced (~$600-1000 street price) multichannel receivers you're into pretty good gear...Keep in mind that an amplifier sounds like an amplifier and changing brands should add or subtract nothing to/from the sound and that going up the food chain just adds power output or snob appeal to a separate amplifier...These days most audiophiles either use a good quality multichannel receiver alone or use a mid-priced multichannel receiver to drive their amps even for 2-channel."

Wow, where do they come up with this? Lack of experience?
128x128russ69
cwlondon
1,210 posts
 
mrtennis

Perhaps the well tempered clavier stimulates the left side of your brain, without necessarily introducing any conscious perception of an "emotional" response?

A perfect cappucino in your favorite cafe might evoke an emotional response, but caffeine by itself is only a stimulant?

What other composers or music, please, would you recommend to enhance concentration and/or to prove that all amps do not sound the same.
zmanastronomy's avatar
zmanastronomy
738 posts
 
I feel that Mrtennis invokes instigated contrast to fuel his narcissist mentality.
He can’t help it of course, but we all can.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
in addition to bach, i would include purcell, scarlatti,froeberger, and other composers who wrote harpsichord music during the baroque period as very helpful when thinking is the sole activity.
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,264 posts
 
Kijanki, a well crafted telling of the standard audiophile dogma with just a hint of hyperbole. But is it possible that it's not large amounts of negative feedback that's the problem, but instead the careless or sloppy use of NFB in circuits not optimized for large amounts of NFB? You should read up on the design criteria for Soulution amps/preamps. Their products feature massive use of negative feedback, outrageously good measurements and supposedly outstanding sound quality. I think you need to rethink your opinion about NFB.

Leaving the world of NFB behind, my earlier point was to point out that science (measurements) is best used in the design of electronic equipment intended to reproduce music and emotions are best employed when listening to music. I think the audiophile world is on the verge of what might be a significant advance in sound reproduction quality as engineers are becoming more knowledgeable about what to measure and how the interpret the data.

One last point, Rowland amps, even the ICE-based ones, measure quite well. Come on down from them hills!
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,432 posts
 
Onhwy61 - Rowland amps sound great because of Jeff Rowland and not any measurements.

Atmasphere amps measure quite bad (THD=1%, DF=1) but sound great.

I don't want to go into details why "feature massive use of negative feedback, outrageously good measurements and supposedly outstanding sound quality" isn't possible, but if you think of soulution 710 amplifier then you're mistaken. This particular amplifier has zero feedback:

http://www.axissaudio.com/amplifiers/710.htm

It is also mentioned in 6 moons review that 700 amps have zero feedback. Anything can be designed. The issue is cost ($40,000).

Icepower that you mentioned measures average. Popular 1000ASP module has only 38kHz bandwidth, 60deg phaseshift (20Hz-20kHz) and 0.2% THD
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