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Ah HAH. Now we're getting somewhere.

"As to matching an SET with a push pull amp of any variety, I think you'd have to have a an ancillary circuit to match the distorion pattern of the SET. SETs create not just more total harmonic distortion, but different ratios of the various harmonics, than do push-pull amps."

Hmmmm... and it's MEAUSURABLE TOO...

You're right. Different amp design topologies do perform differently, and harmonic distortion spectra are every bit as important as the QUANTITY. So why are we always chasing the mystical "unmeasurable but audible" sonics instead of trying to find corollary between what we CAN hear and CAN measure?

But if you add your ancillary circuit, then you're getting into Bob Carver's theory, where he suggests that if you take any two systems, they can be made to sound identical, so long as the transfer functions are made to be indentical at the listening position (that's a loose quote by the way...). So that being said, you gotta ask - at what point do efforts to make the test valid begin to reduce the value of the test in the first place? I mean, after all we WANT to know what the differences are. So if we make the distortion spectra match, are we not defeating the purpose of comparing the amps in the first place?

I just thought it might be better to suggest that the amps are indeed different sounding, and offer the different distortion spectra as evidence, or at least a good working theory! ;)

Cheers,
Presto

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