Difference between amps

When i was going on the look and search for a really good amplifier at low cost, my only possibility was used, but more than used, vintage and a vintage piece miraculously under evaluated...

I have chose mine after 2 years of search, reading ALL reviews about the main vintage legends and ,mythical products, from the tube Fischer amplifier to the Sansui last model....

It is near impossible to buy an amplifier today without listening to it extensively or if not, then put our faith on a few reviews because the product is new...Is this product would be sold as a mythical good one in 50 years? Or would it be forgottent with the mass of good amplifiers but only good not extraordinary good?


With all this thinking i catched a strike with the Sansui AU 7700... At 100 bucks....

It is my really first good amplifier and perhaps my last.... I bought another one 300 bucks in case so good is the first....

😊

In 1968 Sansui was in the top high end and in the mass market of top high end.... His products were sought and it is so true that the name become synonym of fiability, flexibility, organic sounding first, and refined organic sounding at his best.....It was.... It is till this day in my room....

No product at all actually in the market give so much flexibility and high quality for so little money, better than that no product at any cost give the flexibility and not ONLY good sound.....

Think about that..... I feel right with this purchase more than ever.....

Anyway to come back to the question in this thread most of us cannot afford to compare many amplifiers, and the way an amplifier will be listen to is always indirectly, trough a room, through some specific speakers, and specific analog or digital source? And least but not last,how can we assess his real S.Q. trough a not so perfectly embedded audio system ?

The best method is to buy a product very, very, high end or costly, non criticable design or a vintage legend that cannot deceive , between these two alternatives, beware.....

Actual mass market amplifiers has nothing to do with 50 years old mass market amplifiers for many reasons.... Quality is not the main flag here and now but profit except for very costly high end craftsman product but they dont hope to mass market anymore for decades now.... It is no more either the same people that bought audio.... They sought for efficiency more than elusive refinement.... Audiophile is now an insult.... It was not so 50 years ago.... Correct me if i am wrong, you are welcome....

By the way it seems there exceptions to what i speak about, i dont doubt that Schiit for example may sell quality products and develop a mass market but no way this amplifier can compare to the best of Sansui at all level....It is my opinion only i am not necessarily right like i already said....

My best to all...

Real life performance differences of multi channel amps depends on your application and supporting gear. Most of the modern multi channel amps are built for HT duty. They do a nice job of powering the sound of the chop of a helicopter blade or the impact of an explosion. The power ratings in 2 channels driven versus all 7 may be because in normal HT use, rarely, or only in very brief moments are all 7 channels be driven equally. Usually only the center channel is driven continuously. So, in their mind, continuous RMS across all channels is less important? Ultimately it comes down to how it sounds in your system. Specs can’t tell you that. But do not assume these types of amps can sound as good for 2 CH music as a dedicated 2CH amp designed specifically for music reproduction. Different applications, different design goals. So if music is at least one of your priorities, get a dedicated amp for your mains, maybe a decent integrated amp with HT bypass. This should help maximize your music experience. And then get whatever you like to power the rest for HT (or other) duty. If you are comparing between multi channels amps, you need to level match the volume from one to another. When you A/B them correctly, differences in HT applications can be less significant than you might expect.

"...In 1968 Sansui was in the top high end and in the mass market of top high end..."

Not sure if that was ever true.  The  Sansui AU 7700 could never drive the hi-end loudspeakers of the day like the hi-end Infinities. 

I think we rely too much on power ratings.

It takes 10x the power to double the volume, so do I care a lot between 120W and 100? No, really I don’t. In most homes, with a sub, and speakers run as satellites (not full range) 100W per channel is way more than enough.

Honestly, if you are running satellites, with subs, 75W amps per channel x 5 is more than enough unless you are running a mini theater in your home.

How the amps work with your speakers and how they sound is a much bigger deal. I like NAD for the use of nCore, and Parasound a lot.

They are notorious for misleading the consumer with their power output ratings. But that's a marketing decision.

Correct. All this stuff is. The biggest marketing decision is the one virtually all of them have agreed on, to confuse and mislead with meaningless numbers. All these numbers you're so concerned with are meaningless. Absolutely meaningless. 

What are the real or should I say physical or performance differences among these? 

Drop real, drop physical, whatever these even mean, and stick with performance. Then realize the one and only performance parameter with any meaning at all is how people say they sound. Because that is all that matters.  

It will take you a very, very long time listening to a lot of different stuff to realize this, but amplifier specs simply do not matter. Only one spec matters: speaker sensitivity. Good luck if you buy speakers with less than 92dB sensitivity. Good luck finding an amp. When you read all the problems people have matching speakers and amps first thing you should do is go look up the sensitivity of the speakers they have. Go. Look. You will see. Happens all the time. Guy just the other day took a pass on some very excellent easy to drive speakers, bought some 89dB when could have had 99dB, the ones he got will require TEN TIMES the amplifier power to play the same level.   

Good luck with that. Really superb sounding 50 watt amps are all over the place, and are actually affordable. He needs 500 watts. All because he screwed up the one thing that matter about amps, and that is speaker sensitivity. Good luck. 

So forget amplifier power. Do this one simple thing right, find speakers that sound good and are at least 92dB sensitivity you will have no problem whatsoever driving them with anything from 20 watts on up. So power ratings, forget em. Why I said they are meaningless.  

Or you can obsess with the marketing malarkey in which case, good luck! 

Other thing is, multichannel. Sorry, you want 2 channel. Stereo. Multichannel is a wasteland of crap sound quality. They suck people in with the HT BS that you need umpteen channels to watch a movie. Not true. Not even close. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367 Movies on this stereo system are enthralling. Music is to die for. Posted for a reason. Study and learn.