Sounds like a very interesting challenge. I have never seen that before. I wish I lived close to him to see if I could hear the difference. Does this mean that people buying oldschool soundstream class A amps, for example, for 700+ dollars are wasting their hard earned money.There's got to more to it, or if people were smart, they would just buy the cheapest amp with the most headroom to prevent clipping.,and be guaranteed the best sound quality.Head room definitely goes a long way though, for having great sound.as well as quality internal components. I am not challenging you at all,since you are much more experienced than me in the technical department. I would just like to know, if it were so simple,and no one can hear a difference,there are a lot of foolish people in the world spending huge sums of money on so called high end amps for nothing.
A lot of people are wasting money. That doesn't mean that one amp isn't better, features, build quality, etc can make one amp better than another. As with anything, 'better' is all in how you define better.
As I stated earlier, the 'power amplifier section' of one amplifier is likely to sound precisely like any other solid state amp as long as both are properly in proper working order.
This does not include tube amplifiers or amplifiers that have tubes in the preamp circuit and does not include the crossover or equalization.
Some tube amplifiers definitely have a 'sound' and that sound can change by changing the tubes, the transformer or the biasing of the tubes. Some tube amplifiers may sound great on one pair of speakers and awful on another pair of speakers, mainly due to the interaction between the output transformer and the speaker impedance curve.
Most tube amplifiers use only local feedback. Solid state amplifiers typically use global feedback to all but eliminate audible distortion in the power amplifier stage of the amplifier as a whole.
As I stated earlier, the 'power amplifier section' of one amplifier is likely to sound precisely like any other solid state amp as long as both are properly in proper working order.
This does not include tube amplifiers or amplifiers that have tubes in the preamp circuit and does not include the crossover or equalization.
Some tube amplifiers definitely have a 'sound' and that sound can change by changing the tubes, the transformer or the biasing of the tubes. Some tube amplifiers may sound great on one pair of speakers and awful on another pair of speakers, mainly due to the interaction between the output transformer and the speaker impedance curve.
Most tube amplifiers use only local feedback. Solid state amplifiers typically use global feedback to all but eliminate audible distortion in the power amplifier stage of the amplifier as a whole.
There is has been all kinds of debates on this issue.
I remember years ago one of the Car Stereo magazines did a comparison on Class Ab vs C and the bottom line was that there was a very small difference when it comes to cone control(damping factor)but the benefits from the efficiency of the class d was well worth it.
Now this was about 15 years ago so the technology and experience of amp manufactures has probably bridged that gap by now.
But like I said before.The class d mono amps that are made for sub duty all have low pass filters that can not be disabled.This in its self will cause a phase shift that will result in the photos with the square and triangle waves.Therefor the class ab must have the LP enabled to make a fair comparison.
Also.Most modern sub woofers have such a high Le(inductance)and high cone mass,that most cant even produce frequencies above a 200-300hz even when driven with a class AB amp in full range mode.
So,when factoring in the fact that a 50% efficient 1000 watt AB amp draws 2000 watts vs a 80% efficient 1000 watt class d amp that draws 1300 watts,its a no brainer.Drawing 700 watts from a cars electrical system to use as an electric trunk heater is a shame.And we all know that running an amp at full rated power is were its at its most efficient,so its really worse then it sounds.
Im sure all of us has had the experience of testing a 1000 watt class d amp on the bench at 200watts and only pulling about 30amps.But a Zeus bridged at 200watts will want 70 amps.
Full range Class d amps are everywhere now,7.1 house receivers,cell phones,car amps,ETC...
Granted I wont use them because of the slew rate degradation do to the high pass filter at tweeter frequencies but for sub duties they are perfect.
I remember years ago one of the Car Stereo magazines did a comparison on Class Ab vs C and the bottom line was that there was a very small difference when it comes to cone control(damping factor)but the benefits from the efficiency of the class d was well worth it.
Now this was about 15 years ago so the technology and experience of amp manufactures has probably bridged that gap by now.
But like I said before.The class d mono amps that are made for sub duty all have low pass filters that can not be disabled.This in its self will cause a phase shift that will result in the photos with the square and triangle waves.Therefor the class ab must have the LP enabled to make a fair comparison.
Also.Most modern sub woofers have such a high Le(inductance)and high cone mass,that most cant even produce frequencies above a 200-300hz even when driven with a class AB amp in full range mode.
So,when factoring in the fact that a 50% efficient 1000 watt AB amp draws 2000 watts vs a 80% efficient 1000 watt class d amp that draws 1300 watts,its a no brainer.Drawing 700 watts from a cars electrical system to use as an electric trunk heater is a shame.And we all know that running an amp at full rated power is were its at its most efficient,so its really worse then it sounds.
Im sure all of us has had the experience of testing a 1000 watt class d amp on the bench at 200watts and only pulling about 30amps.But a Zeus bridged at 200watts will want 70 amps.
Full range Class d amps are everywhere now,7.1 house receivers,cell phones,car amps,ETC...
Granted I wont use them because of the slew rate degradation do to the high pass filter at tweeter frequencies but for sub duties they are perfect.
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