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In Reply to: RE: Favorite output transformers? posted by cpotl on October 21, 2014 at 16:35:28
To each his own, but if you do a double blind with a good se amp vs solid state I am willing to bet you will be a convert.
Follow Ups:
"To each his own, but if you do a double blind with a good se amp vs solid state I am willing to bet you will be a convert."
There was an interesting set of listening experiments reported, under the name of the "Richard Clark Amplifier Challenge." Apparently Richard Clark, and audio engineer, offerd serious money to anyone who could demonstrate the ability to discriminate, under double blind conditions, between their favourite amplifier and a fiducial amplifier he supplied. More or less the only restrictive conditions were that the distortion of the challenge amplifier had to be less than about 2%, and that he (Clark) would make a simple RC network to balance any deficiency in the frequency response of the challenge amplifier against that of the fiducial amplifier. The challenger could control other things, like choice of sound source, choice of recordings, etc.
Apparently thousands tried the challenge, including "serious" audiophiles, and nobody succeeded.
The "take home" from this would appear to be that if the SE amp were indeed to prove to be distinguishable in double-blind testing, it would either be because of some frequency-response deficiency that could easily be mocked up with a solid-state amplifier and a simple RC network, or else because of high distortion. If somebody finds they prefer high distortion then that is absolutely fine, but it could hardly be called a high-fidelity reproduction of the original signal.
I know that this is just a report of one set of experiments. But I find it puzzling sometimes that some audiophiles seem to display a considerable reluctance to trying to get to the bottom of why they find the sound of the SE amplifier more pleasing. (Even if it is a real and verifiable difference.)
Again, I'm not meaning to be critical. I just feel that if there are discernable differences, it would be good to know why they exist.
Chris
How about a double blind, in home, long term test?Rig it so the listener doesn't know which amp he's listening to, day to day in his normal routine, for 2 weeks and then switch for 2 weeks and then switch back.
I bet many would take Richard Clark's money under those conditions.
Sitting in a room, with the listener's hearing ability being "tested", switching back and forth is just too unnatural a situation to prove (or dis-prove) anything.
Tre'
Have Fun and Enjoy the Music
"Still Working the Problem"
Edits: 10/21/14
I think the distortion is a part of the appeal of the SE amp. The type it has is more pleasing than the type a push pullamp has.
As for solid state, the biggest complaint I had with them was listener fatigue, a very real problem. I can listen to SE amps for hours without any fatigue, but that was never the case before I switched from solid state.
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