[deafmutelame]

Ok, it's not my bet, but it is serious:

http://tom-morrow-land.com/tests/ampchall/index.htm

 

[bigshot]

I would bet one US dollar that he never has to insert the equalizer either.

 

[what?]

nobody has won that challenge ever,

Bottom line ? if your modestly priced amp is made without design flaws it will sound the same as any very expensive amp ever made

 

[castleofargh]

I didn't know about this challenge, TBH I didn't click the link at first, because I assumed it was Bob Carver's challenge.

nobody has won that challenge ever,

Bottom line ? if your modestly priced amp is made without design flaws it will sound the same as any very expensive amp ever made

if you read the rules, you can find listed several objective circumstances that could make speakers sound different. the case being made is that a special sounding amp with decent fidelity, probably isn't born from super duper special exotic and expensive components. which is of course an important idea that traumatized many audiophiles. but it's different from saying that every amps sound the same(something we could disprove easily by parting from his stated rules).

 

[what?]

Im a big fan of blind A/B tests, and avoiding diminishing returns.

 

[bigshot]

Used properly, all decently designed amps will sound the same.

 

[Glmoneydawg]

Umm.....he also claims sonic differences in cd players.He also states all amps do not sound the same in the real world.

 

[bigshot]

I think he's hedging his bet.

 

[TronII]

Excuse me if this is off topic, but wouldn't an amp being Class A, Class A/B, or Class D affect the sound?

 

[SonyFan121]

Ok, it's not my bet, but it is serious:

http://tom-morrow-land.com/tests/ampchall/index.htm

Jeez..I have lost all hope for humanity.
So the significant improvement in sound quality I hear when switching from my PC and Audio Quest Dragonfly Red to my Marantz HD-CD1 and Linn LK85 is just an illusion then? I don't think so!

 

[castleofargh]

Jeez..I have lost all hope for humanity.
So the significant improvement in sound quality I hear when switching from my PC and Audio Quest Dragonfly Red to my Marantz HD-CD1 and Linn LK85 is just an illusion then? I don't think so!

did you bother performing controlled listening tests on those? do all your examples fall under the conditions explained in the challenge?
forget about bigshot's taste for oversimplifications and read the list of rules for the challenge. they're pretty exhaustive.

Excuse me if this is off topic, but wouldn't an amp being Class A, Class A/B, or Class D affect the sound?

it doesn't have to. different designs cause different issues, and when those issues aren't properly dealt with/mitigated, it can turn into a somewhat characteristic sound. but audible transparency has by definition only one way to sound, so it comes down to the degree of fidelity achieved by an amplifier under a given load and output voltage.

 

[bigshot]

JSo the significant improvement in sound quality I hear when switching from my PC and Audio Quest Dragonfly Red to my Marantz HD-CD1 and Linn LK85 is just an illusion then? I don't think so!

It wouldn't be an illusion if you did a proper controlled test without trying to skew the results to fit your bias!

 

[old tech]

d
it doesn't have to. different designs cause different issues, and when those issues aren't properly dealt with/mitigated, it can turn into a somewhat characteristic sound. but audible transparency has by definition only one way to sound, so it comes down to the degree of fidelity achieved by an amplifier under a given load and output voltage.

That's correct. It doesn't really matter what design the amp is, if it is performing to the same specifications it will sound the same as each other. If the specs are different they will sound different but not necessarily due to their design differences. If driven outside their specifications then they will show different distortion characteristics somewhat reflective of their different designs.

 

[TronII]

That's correct. It doesn't really matter what design the amp is, if it is performing to the same specifications it will sound the same as each other. If the specs are different they will sound different but not necessarily due to their design differences. If driven outside their specifications then they will show different distortion characteristics somewhat reflective of their different designs.

So you don't need to pay attention to amp class as long as the specs are good and the price is right?

 

[SonyFan121]

There is a BIG difference in SPL between class A amps and class A/B, D amps. Two separate amps, connected to the same source and volume matched will sound very different if one is Class A and the other Class A/B or D. I know because i've done these tests before, trying to compare the sound quality between an old Cyrus amp I had (a class A amp) and my modern Oehlbach headphone amp (a class D amp). The Cyrus amp was far superior to the Oehlbach amp, despite being 13 years older. That was because it was a Class A amp and could output a significantly higher level of power.