Everything for high end equipment.
The best design & parts to meet some specs the cheapest way possible for mid fi equipment.
What contributes most to a change in how an amplifier sounds?
Amplifiers include tubes (if not solid state), big transformers, lots of internal wiring, Power supply, cabinet, gain controls if you're lucky, connections for incoming and outgoing cables, Computer chips, Control panels, semiconductor boards, design choices, age, etc.
Of all this stuff, what contributes the most to a change in how an amplifier sounds?
An amplifier's "sound" is only apparent when connected to cables and a speaker. So it could depend on the capacitance of the speaker cable, or any steep phase angles the speaker has. And, as mentioned, the power supply, which is why the average receiver will not drive say, a Magnepan or some other type speaker (hybrids, electrostatics and other exotic types) that places demands on the amp it usually can't handle. |
@emergingsoul Dynamics comes from the signal not the amp. When it seems like the amp is more 'dynamic' the chances are extremely high that what you are hearing is actually just distortion masquerading as 'dynamics' due to how the distortion interacts with the human ear.
@lynn_olson If you design a self-oscillating class D amp then you satisfy all these requirements. In a self oscillating amp you intentionally exceed the phase margin by adding so much feedback the amp goes into oscillation as soon as its powered up. The feedback loop is designed to only allow one solution for the oscillation, which is used as the switching frequency. This has the benefit of allowing much higher feedback without the problems caused by lessor amounts and having it poorly applied. It also solves the problem of noise caused when the switching frequency drifts. So this allows the amp to be dead silent even on horns. |