Are you manufacturer's paying attention?

Shubertmaniac,

Who cares what TAS rates as class 1. I would suggest that there is much more that goes into these ratings than meets the eye. I am certain there's a lot more involved in these ratings than how a component makes music. Can you read between the lines?

And only if you have the disposable income, I'll tell you why you should spend more than the Spectral , BECAUSE IT AIN'T TUBES, speciffically an OTL tube design.

Solid state is looking at a Monet from 5 feet. Tubes are looking at a Monet at 10 feet. Otl's are looking at a Monet from 20 feet. Try it and see which one is more realistic.

Warren

Fiddler. Do you mean listener distance in the hall, or do you mean general clarity?

If you mean apparent "hall perspective," my experience is the opposite. Every single SS amp I've auditioned tended to give a more distant perspective than either tubes with transformers or OTL amps.

If you mean general focus, I still don't follow you based on experience. OTL's happen to provide the most detail in a realistic way I have ever heard. SS amps might initially give one the impression of increased focus, but one usually pays the price in the form of either exaggerated, dry detail, or an attempt to control those known down sides with an artificially damped or controlled upper frequency presentation. The SS amps I am comparing to include: Mark Levinson No. 33's, Spectral DMA-100, Pass Labs 250's, BAT-VK-500, and the Sunfire amp.

Not all the tube amps I've tried are the cats meow, either. I still just can't relate to your unequivocal statement about viewing a painting at 5, 10, and 20 feet, etc. My own experience does NOT jibe with it.

I also find it interesting that SS supporters tend to phrase their position in absolute terms, as if they have scientific certitude on their side. To question it is to throw oneself into the realm of heresy--so religiously convinced does the language of many SS proponents sound.

I personally could care less what is inside the amplifier-whether it's SS, tubes, OTL, or batteries, whatever…. All I care about is verisimilitude to a live performance. I find a greater consistent familiarity to live sound when I listen to good tubed amps. That's different from stating something like. "Take a listen to a live performance; a good tubed amp gives you the weight, authority, the air, the harmonic structures in tact, etc. The SS amp gives you a good approximation, but it tends to foreshorten the front-to-back layering or lessen stage depth, shrink the sound stage in general, reduce the physical presence or sense of real people making air move." Many SS proponents seem to use dictatorial language, which implies that any other view is inaccurate, and worthy of ridicule. Many tube folks seem to just state matters in terms of their experiencing a live concert and leave it at that.

I've got a suggestion. Start a co-op of dedicated enthusiasts, who really know how to judge components (and who have the time),and have them do so by auditioning components in their home and writing an "underground" review mag (not glossy or anything) that doesn't take advertising and whose reviews we can take seriously. We can pay a heftier price for the mag and be sure that when we ultimately buy moderately priced or ultra-expensive gear, we really are doing so on good advice. I know very few of us can audition even 1/5 of the gear out there.

What a minute! Isn't this how it was done in the "old days"? This old fashioned approach to reviewing is sorely needed again. Any volunteers?

This is where I came in!
Hey, where's my quarter note?
Yeah, I've been lurking here a little this past year but mainly over at the Asylum and especially Pi Asylum.
The brand names I referred to: C-J, ARC, etc continue to do their thing and a lot of new guys are making even higher dollar, more questionable gear throwing parts at the same old topologies.
Kits is where it's at. No prior experience needed. Building from schematics even better.
I've discovered that value is there for the taking. In the past year I've built pre-amp, 2A3 monoblocks, horn speakers and all their cables. That's an investment of about $2000. Sounds good to everyone who hears it and even a few reviewers.
.
Now I've replaced the $400 Cambridge CD player that embarassed the Planet and Classe with a $200 Sony SCD-CE775 SACD that buries the Cambridge on Redbook.
And I'm going to modify that.
Once your face stops hurting from grinning over what you've created, you find yourself listening to music more and components less.
Come visit me at my low rent website:
http://home.att.net/~wsepstein/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html

Kalan,

I agree with you 100%. I wasn't very clear with my analogy. What I should have said is that: it is like looking at a Monet from 20 feet, all the detail is there, but instead of focusing on each detail as happens at 5 feet, from 20 feet those same details are what makes the picture whole.