Can you tell original file from tube amp record? - test

[Mooly]

Files in one zipped (compressed) folder to save space.

In Windows you just right click the zipped folder and select 'extract all'. That will re-create a new unzipped one containing all the contents.

 

[PMA]

Thank you Karl for being that patient.

 

[turk 182]

got it thanks Mooly!

 

[turk 182]

my vote is in!

 

[Pano]

Glad you finally got it. 🙂

I can't vote because I have no preference. Of course I do have a 50/50 chance of guessing which is the original. 🙂

 

[turk 182]

i know that any impression or description i give will be considered subjective but there's distinct differences between the two that are audible to me which governs my preference.

can i tell which is the original? likely not...so now i've got to figure out the abx thing to see if i can truly distinguish the differences i (think)perceive.

 

[turk 182]

i'm going to go out on a limb and say Avacado is Eric and BB going through tubes all from listening on my cheap computer speakers....where's my headphones...

 

[martyh]

Thought I could tell but I couldn’t. 16 tests got pretty boring by the end.

DS : Primary Sound Driver
Crossfading: NO

08:39:30 : Test started.
08:41:28 : 01/01
08:43:30 : 01/02
08:44:58 : 02/03
08:47:06 : 02/04
08:54:32 : 03/05
08:55:54 : 03/06
08:56:55 : 04/07
08:58:02 : 05/08
08:58:50 : 06/09
08:59:29 : 06/10
09:00:50 : 07/11
09:01:49 : 08/12
09:03:04 : 09/13
09:03:45 : 09/14
09:04:14 : 09/15
09:04:51 : 09/16
09:04:51 : Test finished.

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Total: 9/16
Probability that you were guessing: 40.2%

-- signature --
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[PMA]

Thanks for your test report, martyh.

 

[BYRTT]

Voted using JRiver player and DSP active diy speaker, sense a difference into JRiver but admit ABX in Foobar is harder and closer to 50% (guessing) 🙂

Thanks PMA

 

[rongon]

You can see some measurements in this post
Can you tell original file from tube amp record? - test

THD vs. amplitude plot is up to full amplitude in the test file. Distortion spectrum at full amplitude is now attached. You can see that H4 is below 0.001%, so in fact we have only H2 and H3 that might affect the sound. As the signal amplitude is lowered, higher order components completely disappear and there is only H2 then.

Thanks. I see the 2nd harmonic is pretty high, but the 3rd harmonic is way down there at <0.02%. It looks like 2nd harmonic distortion added is very difficult to pick out reliably. I wonder if the 3rd was higher, say at 0.1%, would it be audible?

Thank you for the ABX report as well. I think that 10/16 is better than just guessing, if you were able to repeat the result, it would bring even more confidence, as now we have 22% probability of guessing. But I take your result and impressions serious.

I had to concentrate *really hard* to get that result. I thought I could hear (more like 'feel') a very tiny difference in how the electric bass and kick drum sounded. I don't know which was which, only that one sounded ever so slightly 'puffy' or boosted in the mid-bass. I tried to do another test, but could not work up the energy to concentrate that hard again. I apologize for being lazy. 🙂

You asked what we use for testing. I took a Roland external USB card and Vivanco SR-750 and Sennheiser HD598 headphones in this test.

Not that different from my setup. I have an O2 headphone amp I could try as well. Maybe the next time I give this a try.

I definitely agree that there are far more imagined differences than real ones between competently designed amplifiers. Obviously it takes a *LOT* of distortion to make an amp sound noticeably different from the original source, at least well below overload.

I have to admit that I like a bit of tube distortion, if done well. I compared my O2 headphone amp to a simple 'spud' headphone amp I built using a high-gm RF pentode wired triode, driving an Edcor output transformer. I prefer the tube amp. I'm sure it makes orders of magnitude more harmonic distortion than the O2, or your tube driver circuit for that matter. Yet I still prefer it for listening to music. Why is that? I don't know. (Rhetorical question; please don't answer.)
--

 

[Pano]

I thought I could hear (more like 'feel') a very tiny difference in how the electric bass and kick drum sounded.
--

Me too, but could not identify it reliably. Might try again.

 

[TNT]

I used a Mac Pro laptop and a pair of Philips Fidelio L2. I will try over my speakers. I'll get back on that.

//

 

[TNT]

OK so I failed with speakers also. If anything, it was actually harder I would say.

//

 

[turk 182]

can somebody help me with the abx thing? i think i've got the abx component but not sure how to access or use it, any links to tutorials would be appreciated!

 

[BYRTT]

Highlight the two files then right click inside highlighted area and follow below dialogs should bring you there 🙂

 

[turk 182]

thanks Brytt!

 

[turk 182]

ok so how do i post my results?

 

[Mooly]

You can either do a screen shot or (much preferred) is also to paste the whole log into the signature verification tool.

 

[BYRTT]

When you "Exit" the "ABX comparator" window you get a dialog where to save a txt-file log of your results, notice where the folder path is to that saved file and when you open that txt-file then copy and paste the result into a new post here.

EDIT Mooly was first here : ) and i see my used versions of Foobar and ABX plugin is older than what Mooly show.