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Do all solid state amps sound the same?

michaelhigh said:
I think 99% of all stereophiles would say the same.:yes:
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I think 99.9% of all people probably would agree too, given the broad context of the question/statement.

However, 99.9% of the time, the question "Do all amps sound the same?" is at least a gross simplification, if not an outright twisted perversion, of the debate or point being made/pondered.
 
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Hmm. I for one cannot tell that much of difference between different amps. I haven't used tubed ones at home yet.

They sure sound v different when you fiddle with tone control/bypassing/volume etc though.

I'd still want to buy better looking, more expensive amps if I can afford'em :D
 
whoaru99 said:
I think 99.9% of all people probably would agree too, given the broad context of the question/statement.

However, 99.9% of the time, the question "Do all amps sound the same?" is a gross simplification of the debate or point being made/pondered.
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Correct. My point exactamundo.
 
I just proved it beyond any doubt...

I took three of my solid state amps, threw them out my 3rd floor window and could not tell one from the other when they landed... :D
 
I have tried out an Onkyo stack, a Kenwood receiver, and two Yamaha receivers all on the same pair of speakers and I can tell you that the difference between the four is like night and day.
 
dusty42701 said:
I have tried out an Onkyo stack, a Kenwood receiver, and two Yamaha receivers all on the same pair of speakers and I can tell you that the difference between the four is like night and day.
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I'm sure they did, within the context of the test/experiment, which is a consideration in the whole subject that never really gets hammered out.
 
SoCal Sam said:
There is a huge difference in SS sound based on following factors:

Age and condition of caps
State of tune -- bias and offset set correctly
Speed of amp -- slew rate and rise time
Accuracy -- rounding, overshoot, ringing, tilting defects
Power rating -- the more, the less chance of sag
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Not that I know exactly what SoCal Sam means by all these factors, I think this is the kind of detail that a conversation like this needs to have. Sam's listed a range of factors that may affect the sound, and he's very specific about it.

Sam posted a great message here. Specific and detailed.
 
SoCal Sam said:
Subjective is open to a wide degree of interpretation such that recommendation based solely on listening impressions is IMO unreliable. I'd like to have some objective measurements to round out the picture.
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If you're buying blind (I guess it would be deaf?) I think a good dose of both is probably necessary. Objective specifications to see if it really has the performance needed to fulfill the job you require it to do, and some sort of subjective description of it's sound by somebody you trust so that you at least have a hint of what you are getting into. I've found some people have an uncanny ability to describe with words exactly how something will sound. Certainly subjective, but to me when its done well, its more like a translation of sound into words than a subjectively biased review. I know I've certainly had to buy many things sight unseen, and have scrounged the internet or magazines to get an overall impression of what people think of it. Maybe not one of the responses is something I 100% would agree with, but a lot of gear seems to have pretty consistent feedback regarding it's sonic characteristics. That there is this consistency suggests to me that, back to the original topic, this stuff must all sound different because if it didn't, either everybody is reading what everybody else had to say and copying it, or the consistency is a fluke way outside of random chance.
 
If the difference - night and day, amplifiers are not in condition.
By the way, what's "better": day or night?:)
 
Coytee said:
I just proved it beyond any doubt...

I took three of my solid state amps, threw them out my 3rd floor window and could not tell one from the other when they landed... :D
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But did they sound the same at the moment of impact?
 
I'm surprised nobody mentioned Cap Coupled vs. DC coupled. My cap coupled Sony sounds mellow while my DC coupled Sony has more clarity. Same speakers. Same wires.
 
I argue that consumer oriented amps/receivers have over time, say the last 30-40 years, come to sound reasonably close to one another. I think that as the technology has become more commodity based and more standardized this was inevitable; however, that does not neccesarily mean that all maufacturers follow the same designs. That is, differentiation of their product has become more feature and aethetic driven than function driven. In the high end and low production products, there is a lot of room for experimentation and designs that can alter the sonic signature of an amp that doesn't exist in the low end.

Also, the move to HT and DSP has surely influenced the perceptibilty of differences among amps.
 
Most of my 9 amps sound the same. The 2-3 that sound different, i don't like. Based on that, 60-70% of all SS amps sound the same. The rest are not good (I've got to go with the majority here).
 
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Gudstufshevy said:
in a double blind test listeners couldn't identify one amp from another, assuming that the amps were performing correctly and within their power range.
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Is there any chance you know where the results of the blind test were originally published? I'd love to be able to have a look at the original data.
 
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