That's why I'm so confused that there aren't more female audiophiles! Now that you mention it, when I asked about tubes, I had in mind a tube pre and pass power amp. Maybe his new ACA Mini?
Awww C'mon More worthless Gear is NOT the answer Buying / using Quality pieces is THE critical bit.
Try it.. It may surprise ?
I beg to differ! I have heard some pretty amazing systems, but I don't think I'll ever have more fun with music and hifi than I did with my old KLH 6's and crappy Sony receiver.
Unfortunately, Charles passed away several years ago, after an extended period of physical challenges.
Oh no, that is tragic. I am glad that his company's name still commands respect.
While, as Ken points out, he's no longer with us, you could review his thousands of posts over on Audio Asylum : https://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/sear...um=ALL&sortRank=None&sort=date&sortOrder=DESC
No. I have designing solid state amplifier that can produce solid imaging and sound stage.
If you have good recording, good sound system, and good room acoustic, it can produce very good imaging and sound stage.
It is artificial. Good recording and sound system can fool most of people that they feel like listening live music unplugged version.
Have you figured out which specific property of amplifier is responsible of this, low crossover distortion or some specific output impedance or something else or many things together? Also, when imaging is perceived good is it so that the amplifier does not ruin whats on the recording or does amplifier somehow enhances whats on the recording?
I guess if people understood what in amplifiers (as system with loudspeaker) constitutes better or worse imaging it would not be so mysterious anymore. If one wants better imaging they could find an amplifier that should have it and not just try find one by luck. Perhaps its common knowledge among some people but lots of hearsay and gossip on forums indicates its not well known. Thanks!
No sure about this but when I listen to the same source with speakers or with headphones, the imaging is different even if I like both. I suspect the room effect to be predominant.
Imho, first is A great power supply design with minimum phase shift.
A great example solid state that i have heard that is great at rendering imaging and spaces between sounds is Gryphon Diablo integrated and Antileon driven with tube preamp.
I don't measure it related to soundstage and imaging. I think it is difficult to measure it in single scalar because it is sound perception of sound localization by the human auditory system. It is related to time and level that produced by amplifier. My hypothesis: time related to transient and phase which is more difficult to produce accurately in solid state amplifier. So, I design solid state amplifier with very high slew rate. It have high probability to get right soundstage and imaging.
Ok so still remains kind of unknown 🙂 My intuition says imaging stuff is probably about phantom images, so both channels should not be affected by the other and should have very similar behaviour. Still, if there is something that makes either speaker distort it affects phantom images as well. Dynamics is important as well I think, depth perception, stuff jumping out. Perhaps this is what people talk about imaging and "collapsing" and what not, dynamics? There is kind of problem with communicating about perceived phenomena and then what actually makes them happen or not happen, and then how to ensure technically it happens or does not happen. Loudspeakers and room are very important, and its very interesting how amplifiers affect this.
Here is thought experiment, example if amplifier channels affect each other or not and how it would perhaps affect imaging. Assume ideal speakers.
Lets feed mono signal to both channels, say pink noise, perfect phantom center image is perceived by the listener.
Now lets mix in timpani hit to left channel, or dinosaur stomp or something, gun shot.
Case 1, amplifier channels affect each other, psu sag or something:
On the transient both channels get amplitude modulation, temporary dip in output. Assuming full bandwidth amplitude dip for both channels, nothing happens to (phantom) image except perhaps some dynamics was lost in the process and depth perception suffered. Both channels sag some so phantom center stays in place, but has some amplitude modulation to it.
Case 2, amplifier channels do not affect each other, separate psu or something:
Transient on the left makes the left channel dip in amplitude but the right plays normal. Now the phantom center would shift to right as right speaker plays louder in comparison, momentarily. How about dynamics? The transient was still somewhat compressed like before but now instead of that much amplitude modulation on the phantom image we got some shift to it as well.
I don't know if this is something that relates to real systems or how much hearing system can make out of it, its just fun thought experiment how things could perhaps go with musical material. Phantom images would not be stable if either side speaker output has different linear or non-linear distortion to it, or some other things going on that makes the sides sound different all the time or momentarily depending on the source material, phantom images suffer I think.
edit. yeah if both sides of stereo amplifier have enough capacity not to change the operation on transients, and the speakers are also capable of reproducing them, then the image should be stable and dynamics should be there.
Lets feed mono signal to both channels, say pink noise, perfect phantom center image is perceived by the listener.
Now lets mix in timpani hit to left channel, or dinosaur stomp or something, gun shot.
Case 1, amplifier channels affect each other, psu sag or something:
On the transient both channels get amplitude modulation, temporary dip in output. Assuming full bandwidth amplitude dip for both channels, nothing happens to (phantom) image except perhaps some dynamics was lost in the process and depth perception suffered. Both channels sag some so phantom center stays in place, but has some amplitude modulation to it.
Case 2, amplifier channels do not affect each other, separate psu or something:
Transient on the left makes the left channel dip in amplitude but the right plays normal. Now the phantom center would shift to right as right speaker plays louder in comparison, momentarily. How about dynamics? The transient was still somewhat compressed like before but now instead of that much amplitude modulation on the phantom image we got some shift to it as well.
I don't know if this is something that relates to real systems or how much hearing system can make out of it, its just fun thought experiment how things could perhaps go with musical material. Phantom images would not be stable if either side speaker output has different linear or non-linear distortion to it, or some other things going on that makes the sides sound different all the time or momentarily depending on the source material, phantom images suffer I think.
edit. yeah if both sides of stereo amplifier have enough capacity not to change the operation on transients, and the speakers are also capable of reproducing them, then the image should be stable and dynamics should be there.
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But isn't it obvious?
How could it be otherwise?
Sorry if I seem not to understand the meaning.
Just what it was designed for: deceive the listener to make him reach his pleasure. IMO
There is also other things I can imagine that might happen in stereo amplifier and might change balance of acoustic stereo output which would affect imaging :
All of this is just imagination, I'm not too familiar with amplifiers. Very interesting stuff and would like to know more so kind of trying to get discussion deeper here 🙂
- if the source material makes the amp output impedance fluctuate, it would change how the speaker interacts with the amplifier
- zero crossings might happen different time on both signals (stereo), which makes crossover distortion in the amplifier if has such topology, not sure how this affects things but can easily be different for each channel, iow do not happen simultaneously on both channels
- tolerances/values in components each side differ some
- temperatures of active and passive devices differ some, like sustained synth note on one side or something heats up things
All of this is just imagination, I'm not too familiar with amplifiers. Very interesting stuff and would like to know more so kind of trying to get discussion deeper here 🙂
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Does it mean that comparison and ranking of sound systems is mostly based on deception?
^what does that mean, isn't power supplies (rails) DC with no phase, or is this phase between current and voltage or something? Well I guess I should start reading about amplifiers to get to same level as others in this sub forum 🙂 Anyway, following out if some interesting stuff appears on the thread.