What amplifier for reference?

[lumanauw]

Building diy amps with many topologies confuses me. I dont know what is the right sound should be. Is there any amp that is used for reference / benchmark about how an amp should sound like? Is there anything like RIAA standard or something? What is the brand and type?

[Jan Dupont]

The only reference are your self....................!!!!
You can't just say that one Amp or one RIAA Amp are THE REFERENCE!!!
Why do you think that there are so many different circuits ???
Because we all have our own reference (in our ears and head)

The best thing you can do, is to listen to some different types of Amp's and RIAA's, and the select the ones that YOU like best, and then build your own with similar topology

[maylar]

That's like asking what the standard is for comparing beers. Everyone has their own favorite.

[JensRasmussen]

Hi

Originally posted by maylar
That's like asking what the standard is for comparing beers. Everyone has their own favorite.

Thats right, mine is Chimay from Belgium

\Jens

[EchoWars]

Guiness!!

The trick is to listen to lot's of amps, find one that agrees with you, and take a look at its topology.


For myself, I end up liking the sound of amps with very straighforward designs...nothing fancy or groundbreaking, just enough stages to get the job done.

[Jay]

I had the same question once. And I have learnt that the amplifier doesn't create
sound by itself. The most difficult task in the audio is to change analog into waves,
next is from digital to analog. Amplifiers are just to amplify analog flatly from 20Hz
to 20KHz with acceptable distortion, which can be achieved by the cheapest
DIY amplifier here. So mostly we need an amp that is suitable with the speaker,
source, and preamp we use (I don't want to say anything about preferences)

If you talked about speakers of at least $15000, I guess Krell suits more people
than other famous brands do.

My standard DIY amplifiers are the Crescendo, any of the class A amplifier
(Hiraga/JLH), Alephs (this one has different quality), and Musical Fidelity A1. All
have their own implementation. I choose MF A1 simply because I want a good
looking class A amp, which require only side heatsinks (it is class A till 5W or so,
or only 650mA of bias current). If you build the MF A1 with dedicated 15V supply
for the front end (you can find the kit easily in Bandung), it will be a big upgrade.

For average users or most users, class A is ALWAYS better sounding.

[traderbam]

I dont know what is the right sound should be. Is there any amp that is used for reference / benchmark about how an amp should sound like?

This is a very interesting question. IMO the right sound is the sound that was recorded in the first place (although it is usually impossible to witness the original sound and the hifi system simultaneously to compare them). In other words the amplifier should not sound of anything at all.

So what amplifiers are there today that sound of nothing at all? Probably none, so we just end up choosing which has the most palatable sound pollution and this is subject to individual taste.

What you can do as a designer is learn to identify types of pollution by listening to several designs and lots of music. We are conditioned to believe that hifi won't sound real so to train your brain to spot problems requires some effort. Like if you watch TV you don't for a moment think the picture is real. But it takes some thinking to describe all the ways it is different from reality. With audio the same thinking is needed but it is more difficult to identify and define the differences. Over time you can learn and it becomes easy to identify and discriminate amplifier problems vs speaker and CD and so on.

[Greg Erskine]

Hi lumanauw,

I think your first DIY amp starts out as your reference then as you build better ones you change your reference amp to the better one.

I've built a few amps over the last few years, about 8, and first one is still the best, so it's still my reference amp. Just start building, from my experience they will all sound good, just some have that little "something" that make them just that little bit better.

I haven't completed a class A amp yet so I can't directly compare them to my class AB and chip amps. I have heard a couple though and was impressed.

[lumanauw]

Hi, Jay, apa kabar?
Dimana saya bisa beli K389 di Jakarta?

It maybe confusing more. Some amps are good for classic music, some good for county, some good for disco, etc. I have experienced this. Is there really no perfect sounding amp?

While some are seriously in class A with huge heat, some says chip amps are good. This is really confusing too.

[jcx]

you forgot to preface all the unqualified, uncontrolled subjective reports of amplifier differences with "some say..."

double blind comparision of amps that are measurably the same in freq response, output Z and matched for listening level do not reveal any audible differences - there is an uncollected US$ 10 K bet out there for anyone who can tell the difference in controlled listening test