Richard Clark $10,000 Amplifier Challenge - Why Couldn't Anyone Pass this Test??

Also want to say, we are lucky to be alive right now. There are some wonderful Women and Men making violins, violas and cello’s these days for relatively paltry sums compared to buying a Strad.

Anyone who gets a chance to listen to an accomplished violinist should also be grateful for a chance to hear such remarkable craftsmanship.

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@bdp24   

Not surprised by your finding as Quad ESL can be an extremely tough load. Differences in amplifier damping (output impedance) would be quite audible. This only proves one of the major design issues with Quad.

This is a reason why I strive to make my speakers easy to drive. Easy to drive means they will sound great across a variety of amplifiers and electronics.

+1

Not surprised by your finding as Quad ESL can be an extremely tough load. Differences in amplifier damping (output impedance) would be quite audible. This only proves one of the major design issues with Quad.

This passage is false.

The 'original Quad' (as bdp24 put it) is an easy load to drive. Differences in damping between amps is one of the few things that **isn't** audible on the speaker, owing to the fact that in the bass range the impedance is rather high. This reduces the difference heard between an amp with say 10:1 damping factor as opposed to one with 100:1.

OTLs are traditionally thought to not be able to drive 'tough loads' but OTLs can drive the Quads with ease. The real issue here is that the Quad is pretty transparent and does not need a lot of power, so its that 'first watt' that becomes so vitally important. Many traditional solid state designs are not so good at that first watt. Put one on a 'scope sometime and look at how they behave. Usually they have much higher distortion in the first watt than they do at higher powers until they approach clipping.

To actual musicians, the "feel" of the instrument is what counts, and Strads (not all of course) seem to have a feel and tone that people who play them really like, thus they might play better using them. Nobody disputes that fact really, and since there are a limited amount of zillion dollar Old Master built instruments out there, most good musicians can’t get near one…so, of course, they use other things and sound fine. Note that among Strads and other old and great violins the utility is often tweaked (i.e. repairs are made) that would be blasphemy among "vintage" guitar players (something I actually know something about as I am personally vintage). I saw a 50s Stratocaster advertised at Mandolin Brothers that didn’t actually work because to make it work you’d have to replace an original part (an original tone or volume pot or something), and that would make it less valuable!…love that…also, since Brazillian rosewood isn’t legal now (new stuff anyway), Martin Guitars is taking guitars from the 60s and 70s (a less than "special" era) apart for their rosewood, and making new and expensive high end guitars out of the backs and sides…clever bastards. The good news is there are thousands of great instrument makers doing fabulous work these days, so great instruments are available.