Ahofer cables and amps are incredible tone controls, so is adding spices to foods, adding more or unusual ingredients to a well known dish to alter the flavor to taste.
Came up with the Coffe Drinkers School of Audiology many years ago.
Take a great high end coffe bean, crystal clear filtered water, and a good coffee machine now make and serve your coffee.
Coffee drinker One: Total neuturalilty camp: Pure, hot coffee no milk, no sugar = the detail guy wants to hear everything no coloration great recordings sound great, bad recordings sound horrible.
Other end of the spectrum: Coffee Drinker Two: The sweet Coffee guy or the polar opposite of Coffee drinker One:
Take 1/4 cup of cream, six table spoons of sugar, yes the high end coffee is still there you just can’t taste it, the flavor is predominantly rich, mellow, sweet, but very little coffee flavor, a new creation. This listener craves the ability to never have to have any listener fatique everything and every recording sounds good, this kind of listener likes a rich tube amplifier, warm loudspeakers, lot of vinyl, the system sound lovely but doesn’t sound like real music.
Middle Ground Coffee Drinker Three: Standard cup with the bite removed: the slightly toned down version of neutral. This listener strives for a system that sounds real but the top end is a bit warmer. The Coffee analog is a touch of milk or cream with a bit of sugar. This listener craves a realistic listening experience with a just a bit of euponic coloration. Cymbols crash, high hats have bit but not too much.
Now you have three points on the curve, hyper detailed on one extreme, on the other side hyper warm on the other end, and the more middle ground, neutral with a bit of softening. Of course there are more points on the scale but these are given to illustrate a point of reference.
Audio is like cooking we start with a great set of speakers as the speaker determines the kind of amplifier and the power required, we demo many in our floor: Kef, Paradigm, ATC, Quad, Golden Ear, etc, then we demo different electronics, first we start with solid state inegrateds, then separates, then tubes or possibly hybrid systems with a tube preamp with a solid state power amplifier, then we demo different digital front ends.
So yes tube amplifiers sound different then solid state, some solid state amplifiers are bright, some are warm, some cables are bright, some neutral some are warm, same with digitial.
A good system requires carefull matching and balancing all of the parts, which is why for this gentleman we said start with a simple switch to brighter cleaner sounding interconnects, which are easy to ship and demo.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
