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What makes an amp sound more direct ?

In our hifi journey we have probably all heard amps with different topologies and implementation. Most of these amps would have an implementation which is a combination of one of these:

1. Single Ended
2. Push-pull
3. Balanced
4. Differentially Balanced
5. Class A, A/B, D
6. High/Low Damping factor
7. Zero Negative Feedback (global & local)
8. Low/Medium/High Negative feedback
9. 2/3/4/multiple gain stages

There will be more such items that can be added to the list. My curiosity arises from the fact that some amplifiers (or even preamplifiers) sound much more direct than others. The ones that does this trick generally seems to do the "they are here" trick very well. While the components which sound relatively indirect cast a sound scape which gives the perspective of "we are there".

Just from my observation, single ended and zero feedback designs sound much more direct than balanced designs especially ones with high negative feedback. Is this a coincidence or is there a valid reason behind this ? 
pani
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mapman's avatar
mapman
15,679 posts
 
From my experience and reports I read from others, it does seem that use of negative feedback typically results in a more laid back presentation than otherwise. That would seem to infer a different tonality between the two in general. So avoiding that is probably a good move in the interest of achieving a more "direct" sound than otherwise.

I owned one near zero feedback amp in recent years as an experiment and yes it tended to be more direct and forward than most others I have owned.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Well, I can tell from experience feeding the CD player output directly into the amp does wonders for directness and transparency. That's my uber modded Oppo into an all tube class A Woo audio headphone amp.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
7,068 posts
 
'Direct' is a term that I don't really understand, but I do understand that when we got rid of the feedback in our amps, they seemed to sound much more like real music. Palpable, with all the instruments more distinct and available to the ear, if that makes any sense.

Its been known since the 1950s that the application of negative feedback can add higher ordered harmonics, which contribute to 'glassiness', 'hardness', that sort of thing, which IMO/IME takes you away from the sense of real music and is instead more like a good hifi.

So this means that our amps won't drive as many speakers correctly as they would if we had feedback, But its been my contention because of the negative attributes of feedback that any speaker that requires that of the amplifier will likely never sound like real music- instead they will always sound like good or excellent hifi. For some this might be a rather indistinct line in the sand but I've always wanted the stereo to sound real.


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