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Why do different amps sound so different?

Those are beautiful amps. If they sound half as good as they look, they must be glorious.

An additional thought occured to me this morning: There are occasions when referring to the spec sheets to verify synergy between components is prudent and necessary.

Examples: Will an amp drive low impedance speakers?

Tube preamp (generally higher output impedance) driving the (generally) lower input impedance of a SS amp.

In these examples, degraded sound could result from system mismatching.
 
TubeHiFiNut said:
Those are beautiful amps. If they sound half as good as they look, they must be glorious.

An additional thought occured to me this morning: There are occasions when referring to the spec sheets to verify synergy between components is prudent and necessary.

Examples: Will an amp drive low impedance speakers?

Tube preamp (generally higher output impedance) driving the (generally) lower input impedance of a SS amp.

In these examples, degraded sound could result from system mismatching.
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Incidentally, I have no amps that won't drive anything. It seems the ones truly worthy of praise are not limited this way ime.
 
Where I was going with my earlier posts is that I think "specs" come in many forms, and that people use them perhaps more than meets the eye...at least upfront to separate their ideas of wheat from chafe.

After that, good specs don't inherently guarantee a piece of gear a permanent seat at the table, but gear with bad specs generally won't even get an invitation to dinner.
 
whoaru99 said:
After that, good specs don't inherently guarantee a piece of gear a permanent seat at the table, but gear with bad specs generally won't even get an invitation to dinner.
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Another way to say this, would be....Measurements can tell you nothing is designed in error, but to know what's right, you must listen. :music:

EV 3
 
TubeHiFiNut said:
Given my love of low powered SE amps, we will have to agree to disagree on this point. ;)
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I have a pair of 7189 Electrohome mono organ pulls and an ST-70 I have yet to satisfy my curiosity with. I had a quick listen to the Electrohomes at the shop that got them up and running. He had them hooked up to a pair of large vintage Altec Lansing speakers. Lots of volume for a mere 17wpch. Top and bottom end roll-off was immediately noticeable. That was a year ago. No wonder the tube guys lament the brightness of ss. I've actually read statements on forums like 'excessively low distortion' and 'too high damping factor' attributed to ss. I understand there are tube amps without those issues though.
 
yess SE types usually But at significant Prices and power costs.
Never a Free lunch.
SE s' sound great on 'small' Full range drivers though.. a seemingly appropriate match of idiosyncracies.
ST70 has 'involved' a surprising number of people. Myself included.
Tweaked beyond oem recognition, at significant/ spare no expense upgrades,
Mine was eventually outclassed by a then new NAD... Nuff said.
 
Superampman said:
I have a pair of 7189 Electrohome mono organ pulls and an ST-70 I have yet to satisfy my curiosity with. I had a quick listen to the Electrohomes at the shop that got them up and running. He had them hooked up to a pair of large vintage Altec Lansing speakers. Lots of volume for a mere 17wpch. Top and bottom end roll-off was immediately noticeable. That was a year ago. No wonder the tube guys lament the brightness of ss. I've actually read statements on forums like 'excessively low distortion' and 'too high damping factor' attributed to ss. I understand there are tube amps without those issues though.
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Properly designed PP tube amps will drive most any speaker load. Over the years, I have heard the big Quicksilver, VTL, ARC, CJ, etc. tube amps drive a very wide variety of Ribbon, Dynamic, Electrostatic, Horn, etc. speakers with ease.

My triode modified ARC D-160 has driven everything from M-L CLS electrostatics to a full Sequerra set (sub, Met7 and Ribbon Tweeter).

SET (or SEP for that matter) are going to be restricted by their lower power and topology to efficient speakers and non-complex crossovers to operate at their best.
 
botrytis said:
AYUP - it is the pre-amps that are making them different not the amp section.

Why do people get so confused by this?
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Power-amps can sound a lot different from one another too,e.g.,a Pioneer Spec 4 power-amp compared to a Spec 2 power-amp using the same Pioneer Spec 1 pre-amp.
 
re: two identical amps sound different, Conrad I think alluded to it in a round about way. Every component within the topographic design has its own parameters whether you are measuring transistor hfe variances, capacitor accuracy to uf specification etc etc. Spice modeling 'may' give outstanding results that are then diminished by the actual tolerance of the components used. Given accurate enough testing equipment and knowhow these parameter variances can be quantified, for the rest of us our ears make the decision as to just how good an amplifier sounds imho.
Case in point why else would we debate tube rolling, transistor subs and cap selection ad nauseum at times for the same amplifier being repaired/modified/restored.
amplifier= wire with gain oh dear silver wire ofc wire barbed wire etc etc :)
 
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