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Single Ended Triodes (SETs), the ultimate tube lovers dream.

RE: we agree on the bit about the OPT at least.

"ven though you might not consciously hear them because they are masked by the lower ordered harmonics, the ear does respond to the higher orders because the ear/brain system uses them to sense sound pressure (fundamental tones without overtones being pretty rare in nature...). "

I don't think this is right. Can you provide a reference for this?

My understanding is that you detect the "loudness" only if it is unmasked...masked is masked and you don't sense it. Otherwise, SET amps would probably not sound as good as they do (and they DO sound good when done right).

You are right that high order harmonics not being masked will impact sensation of depth perception and loudness.


BTW, the low order harmonics do no mask all higher order harmonics. It only masks relatively near neighbors. A bit more masking occurs when the ears own distortion rises with SPL level and this expands a bit to even higher orders but if you have significant higher order harmonics at low volume (by this I mean 7th and above), these will not be masked and will show up in the "character" of the amplifier...even at extremely low levels.


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