Do all audio amplifiers really sound the same???

[john curl]

My associate, Jack Bybee, used to be a consultant to R. Feynmann as a cryo expert. Any questions that you would want me to pose to him? I dine with him tomorrow.

[planet10]

Originally posted by abzug
And that's the fault of the speaker for being a high distortion device and a nonlinear load--not the amplifier. Just because the speaker sucks doesn't mean you can blame an amplifier for not correcting for speaker faults.

Not at all... these applies equally well to any set of valid loudspeakers.

With loudspeakers maybe 10% of the way to perfect, it is very easy to choose 2 different speakers that are equally valid, yet sound very different, and have different loads for the amplifier and different quality of backEMF.

Furthermore was the speaker designed for a voltage amplifier (the majority for the last few decades) or for a current amplifier (coming back big time, and historically common) or somewhere in-between.

dave

PS: you do need to come to this summers event...

[SY]

wakibaki, the great Professor Dick Greiner wrote about that very subject. His take was that photography enthusiasts tend to spend their time taking pictures. They don't grind their own lenses, make their own film, etc, etc, so there's not as much traction for superstitious nonsense.

[john curl]

SY, have you ever listened to Greiner's audio system?
You should see what REAL photographers use, and they believe in hi end audio. They showed me what they do to photograph the Louvre, etc. It is as hi end as any audio, and they showed me what they do, to get the two of us 'up to speed' so to speak.

[SY]

No, I haven't (only met Dick twice). I've read about it and it's apparently quite elaborate.

[john curl]

Ring resonators.

[SY]

BTW, anyone wishing to see what Prof. Greiner actually wrote can download it at http://www.theaudiocritic.com/back_i...ritic_26_r.pdf . It's on p3.

[KP11520]

John,

Please ask him how he would set up a test to satisfy both.... all three camps!

Then ask him if he thinks if this thread has too many posts and very little results. And then ask him if we are crazy if we double the current amount of posts and are still in the same place!

Then ask him if he knows that Sy has his quote on his signature! LOL

Then ask him to be the honorary guest at Sy's next festival!

That should be enough!

Regards//Keith

[eStatic]

Originally posted by SY
wakibaki, the great Professor Dick Greiner wrote about that very subject. His take was that photography enthusiasts tend to spend their time taking pictures. They don't grind their own lenses, make their own film, etc, etc, so there's not as much traction for superstitious nonsense.

Hmmm... I know a number of amateur astronomers who make their own scopes and they are not the least prone to superstitious nonsense

[djk]

I thought it about time to put the stick in the anthill and stir up the natives again.

Different brands of resistors sound different.

I repaired a Mark Levinson ML-3 a while back, it didn't image (as well as some other problems).

All capacitors were replaced in both channels (believe it or not, there were different brands in the signal path of both channels as shipped when new).

This improved it, but did not fix it.

All semiconductors were replaced in both channels (and matched).

This did not fix it.

Each channel had a different brand of resistors, all 1% metal film types (except the emitter resistors), all within spec.

Replacing the resistors in both channels fixed the problem.

"All amplifiers sound the same"

(ROFLMAO)