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In Reply to: RE: What has been your amplifier (s) journey? posted by Norman M on February 20, 2015 at 11:23:53
Bob Carver & Stereophile proved that, as he adjusted the transfer functions of his amplifiers to match - well - whatever he wanted. The loudspeaker load and dynamics also are involved. Back around 1981 or so I was second jobbing at a hi-fi store. A customer wanted to compare 100Watt Amplifiers - SAE and the APT Holman One with his loudspeakers (Rectilinears). In our store the APT almost always bested or at least matched the SAE with the B&W, JBL, McIntosh, DCM loudspeakers we offered - but with the customer's Rectilinears the APT was not up to the SAE performance. Of course - the customer didn't but the SAE from me - he walked out and saved $50 by using Mail order :b
As for Magneplanars - they are inherently inefficient but are capabile of good dynamics if you give them lots of power. 300 Watt minimum even for the lowly MMG's I use.
"The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat" - Confucius
Follow Ups:
"In our store the APT almost always bested or at least matched the SAE with the B&W, JBL, McIntosh, DCM loudspeakers we offered...."
As in optometry .... choose the setting which allows you to see better and more clearly than does another. (In audioland, one amplifier to make sound from some given speaker(s) appear to play louder than another, possibly due to a variety of reasons.) What generalizations can come from such?
Not louder - but due to the way the impedance varies the output subtly - the tone or the presence can favor an individuals or groups preference with a particular source material. Once that preference is established - the human mind will allow it to persist even in the absence of physical evidence to the contrary.
Heyser explained this behavior with his "Catastrophe Theory" as it relates to perception manifolds.
"The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat" - Confucius
When I was much younger and with decent hearing about 35 years ago, I was present during a one hour-plus 'shoot-out' at my high-end dealer, Lyric Hi-Fi (Manhattan), and at that time its proprietor Mike Kay who sold both Mark Levinson equipment (the man) and Audio Research Corporation, conducted that experiment. One the amps was the tubed ARC D-79, the other a ML amp having the closest electronic capabilities and characteristics.
*None* of us, including MK, another customer or myself could tell them apart, so all the theories in the world including the one you mentioned, notwithstanding to me amount to BS. In that case it also seemed to apply to tubes vs. SS, so just call me Julian Hirsch and let's be done with it.
(Mike Kay claimed he could hear which of the two was the 'better', but he was not going to tell us. I think it most probably was the one which most fattened his bank account.)
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