The guys at ASR are offering free component trials, along with a fun proposition.
I am not interested in sending my equipment to test even if I were a neighbor, I have no vocation as a masochist. Enough with the Behringer NX3000 D and Project Tube Box S2 ratings from their website.
Damn my luck! They also did not like the accepted MC load impedance (100/470/1000 Ohms) by the audiophile world for a Denon DL103 cartridge, "it is the same to load with the option of 47 KOhms for MM", they answered me.
It seems that I walked in the wrong door, there was no fun for me!
Why did Amir measure this amp if he knew how it would turn out? Oh I dont know, because he gets hundreds of requests to measure things and there would have been a lot of requests about this amp and many members ready to send him one to measure? His conclusion that the people who build and enjoy perhaps prefer effects boxes, is inline with the amp having an H2 add on module; is it not? seems to follow pretty clearly to me. Dont pretend that it somehow brings you closer to the music; it demonstrably does not, but that has little to do with preference and enjoyment and you should not feel that that is an attack from me either. Just look at the amount of distortion applied in music production on purpose ... I think perhaps taking that further and saying people are deluded or deaf or whatever is a bridge too far and Amir is not known for his tact; but thats not what his audience wants ... As Nelson said, its all entertainment ... To say that the members here are more hands on .... hmmm. perhaps as a whole, but I would say there is probably a higher number of engineers who design gear professionally active on ASR than here, so its a mixed bag.
There are some very convincing amplifier modelling plugins designed for music production that use FIR to convolve the sound of any input to sound like well regarded mixing desks, mic pres etc. There are many ways to skin a cat and you can turn those off if you want. That this idea is panned almost universally by people that build their amps to do something similar is a little confusing however ... Is it that you dont want to admit your preference for distortion somehow? are you ashamed? if so, why? Why should you care if you love the sound? Using an ACA with H2 module to monitor a mix, or as a way to test out low distortion sources, would be a fools endeavour. That isnt its purpose, so it doesnt make it a flawed design; it does exactly what it is designed to do. Nelson can and does design very competent, high performance designs and depending on your metric, those wipe the floor with the ACA objectively too. Using an amp that does have its own flavour does mean it may be more picky with source and source material, as well as load, so it will behave a bit differently depending on your mix of gear ie. they are not as agnostic. Thats again totally ok, because swapping gear around mix and match is a big part of what people enjoy here.
I dont like the way everyone piles on and reaches snap decisions bashing there sometimes, but this thread and others like it illustrate that ASR is not alone in this regard. This is not a war; we have enough things that separate us as humans, without creating warring factions along such meaningless lines.
The first watt amps are not designed for low distortion; they are about elegance in circuit design, providing a solid basis for learning the hobby, fun to DIY, with easy to see and solder, quality discreet parts and in general producing a pleasing harmonic structure; generally H2/even order dominant, with falling levels of harmonics after that. I would say that is preferred, at least for me, even for amps that start with a very low level of H2.
There are some very convincing amplifier modelling plugins designed for music production that use FIR to convolve the sound of any input to sound like well regarded mixing desks, mic pres etc. There are many ways to skin a cat and you can turn those off if you want. That this idea is panned almost universally by people that build their amps to do something similar is a little confusing however ... Is it that you dont want to admit your preference for distortion somehow? are you ashamed? if so, why? Why should you care if you love the sound? Using an ACA with H2 module to monitor a mix, or as a way to test out low distortion sources, would be a fools endeavour. That isnt its purpose, so it doesnt make it a flawed design; it does exactly what it is designed to do. Nelson can and does design very competent, high performance designs and depending on your metric, those wipe the floor with the ACA objectively too. Using an amp that does have its own flavour does mean it may be more picky with source and source material, as well as load, so it will behave a bit differently depending on your mix of gear ie. they are not as agnostic. Thats again totally ok, because swapping gear around mix and match is a big part of what people enjoy here.
I dont like the way everyone piles on and reaches snap decisions bashing there sometimes, but this thread and others like it illustrate that ASR is not alone in this regard. This is not a war; we have enough things that separate us as humans, without creating warring factions along such meaningless lines.
The first watt amps are not designed for low distortion; they are about elegance in circuit design, providing a solid basis for learning the hobby, fun to DIY, with easy to see and solder, quality discreet parts and in general producing a pleasing harmonic structure; generally H2/even order dominant, with falling levels of harmonics after that. I would say that is preferred, at least for me, even for amps that start with a very low level of H2.
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if you read, i'm not talking about the amps 
plus i'm talking about using commercially generated impulse responses that will at least model that in the frequency domain if thats where the impulse was taken (after the amps). the amps output impedance will still have the same effect; as you arent modulating the amp output. I also covered that a little in my edit. i'm not pretending its a dissertation its all entertainment. Thanks though; care to expand on how that would follow or could be incorporated? tuning the H2 with the H2 module doesntreally take the amps outoutZ into account either, does it? I havent looked at the schematic, but I wouldnt think so.
edit, my apologies, I see I did start out by mentioning the amp modelling. its just one of the things you can include in the model. indeed it would not stop the amp output impedance from varying with frequency if the amp you were using for playback had a lot of that; unless you closed the loop after it. I just think its interesting that this idea is panned hard, but many are building their amps to add flavour in the same way; without admitting it; then are outraged when someone mentions it might be the case. Again, no judgement here, just be honest.
plus i'm talking about using commercially generated impulse responses that will at least model that in the frequency domain if thats where the impulse was taken (after the amps). the amps output impedance will still have the same effect; as you arent modulating the amp output. I also covered that a little in my edit. i'm not pretending its a dissertation its all entertainment. Thanks though; care to expand on how that would follow or could be incorporated? tuning the H2 with the H2 module doesntreally take the amps outoutZ into account either, does it? I havent looked at the schematic, but I wouldnt think so.edit, my apologies, I see I did start out by mentioning the amp modelling. its just one of the things you can include in the model. indeed it would not stop the amp output impedance from varying with frequency if the amp you were using for playback had a lot of that; unless you closed the loop after it. I just think its interesting that this idea is panned hard, but many are building their amps to add flavour in the same way; without admitting it; then are outraged when someone mentions it might be the case. Again, no judgement here, just be honest.
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I tend to favor more agnostic amps, with low/lowish outputZ, so that would be why I didnt pay it much attention
I dont actually USE such plugins in my playback chain; although I do use them fairly extensively in my toying with production; I was just saying that you could, so you would indeed have to have a holistic approach if you were to want to use with different speakers, or amps that DO have wiggles in the response caused by outputZ, by creating the impulse after the amp output, with a simulated load I guess. i'm totally shooting from the hip here..
Of course if all you wanted to do was add some H2, there are much easier ways to achieve that.
I dont actually USE such plugins in my playback chain; although I do use them fairly extensively in my toying with production; I was just saying that you could, so you would indeed have to have a holistic approach if you were to want to use with different speakers, or amps that DO have wiggles in the response caused by outputZ, by creating the impulse after the amp output, with a simulated load I guess. i'm totally shooting from the hip here..
Of course if all you wanted to do was add some H2, there are much easier ways to achieve that.
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well all is relate to the speakers you use ....reflex isn't the same of open baffleI tend to favor more agnostic amps, with low/lowish outputZ, so that would be why I didnt pay it much attention
Of course if all you wanted to do was add some H2, there are much easier ways to achieve that.
As H2 we know very well thanks Pa .....https://www.firstwatt.com/pdf/art_diy_preamp_h2v2.pdf