Just to mention, even when it seems like there’s no distortion there‘s actually lots of distortion. One simply gets used to the distortion, it’s always been there. Everything is relative. As I said much of the distortion is produced by non audio system things. How ’bout them apples?
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."
- George Carlin
Why do solid state amplifiers that have been driven to the lowest distortion values usually sound, and still sound, often much worse than, for example, tube amplifiers with higher distortion? The developers and testers don't look at the effort and complexity: low-distortion circuits are highly complex and often end up with a large number of amplification stages. Tube amplifiers rarely have more than three or four, the number of parts is lower: fewer parts modulate the signal with their character. In addition, even in the PP range, tube amplifiers are not built from highly different sounding complementary parts. Their separately amplified half-waves therefore sound more homogeneous. Real half-wave symmetrical pp concepts are very rare in the solid state sector. Unfortunately, the usual peep measurement values do not correspond to the audible measurement values. And simply claiming that an amplifier sounds more correct, because it distorts less, even if it sounds terrible, but the audible noises and signal modulations caused by parts are not visually detected and taken into account, is unscientific. Because "sound", "audio" can only be detected by listening, "audio"-)
The two technologies are so different, it is unimaginable that they will sound the same. It could be said of an OLED and cathode ray screen, they will never look the same.
It is difficult but I know for certain that your taste is so different from mine or anyone else that it is unimaginable that we can appreciate the better side of life. It boils down to saying I like being rich you will say that being poor is a more honest way of life. Or I say I like driving a BMW X7 and you will tell me that a bicycle is better because it is cheaper and gets you to the same destination....... ? Besides Jan, it is very unappropriated to allege what my limitations are, you have no idea. BTW the uniform that I am wearing is that of a major general and it was not given me by Xmas father. Besides the medals are actual battlefield decorations and none for long service.
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It’s not that they don’t sound the same, actually, the tube amps generally sound a lot better. You know, not thin,, dimensionless, airless, compressed, unmusical.
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Funny, folks don’t do Blind Testing for TVs, they just buy the one that looks the best in the store in their price range. Why not the same for audio? What is the big deal? 😳
Okay all, I concede vales (tubes) and transistors sound exactly the same. I cannot tell I have a terrible hearing impediment, in fact I am the deaf dumb and blind boy (from the Who)
Components don't have a sound - it's the use and context that will define a component behaviour. and technical performance. Together with a number of components, they all form a unit. Several units form a system...
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I test the parts for their sound before I use them. 9 out of 10 parts are unsuitable for audio;-)
Meanwhile I assume that there are a lot of people who can't hear differences, just as there are people who can't tell the difference between green and red, or concept and object, for example. So it makes no sense to talk about different sounds of different parts. Or physics, or science or whatever;-)
Meanwhile I assume that there are a lot of people who can't hear differences, just as there are people who can't tell the difference between green and red, or concept and object, for example. So it makes no sense to talk about different sounds of different parts. Or physics, or science or whatever;-)
+1
Components don’t have a sound. Circuits do. Two different circuits can have the same transfer function and sound the same. Don’t forget “The Carver challenge”.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/carver-challenge
When I worked for HP Signal analysis division, we had semiconductor components pre-selected according to our criteria by the manufactured labelled with HP part numbers. The reason was that if you design a signal generator there cannot be distortion in its output. Likewise for the linear amplifier in a network or spectrum analyser amplifier section. Not being in the position to order the exact characteristics from the outset must make testing and characterising components suitable for your design a tedious task and should fetch a high price for the finished product. I only made one amplifier like that and had all the metal machined and anodized, when finished I could hardly afford it. It revealed zero distortion, really. It is my pride and joy and drives my appogee schintillas with heft and dynamically only having 1 ohm impedance. I could not do this with tubes because I needed very expensive transformers made,