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Is there actually a difference?

Speakers sound different - that is very obvious. But I’ve never experienced a drastic change between amps. Disclaimer that I’ve never personally ABX tested any extremely high end gear.

With all these articles claiming every other budget amp is a "giant killer", I’ve been wondering if there has ever been blind tests done with amplifiers to see if human ears can consistently tell the difference. You can swear to yourself that they do sound different, but the mind is a powerful thing, and you can never be sure unless it’s a truly blind test.

One step further - even IF we actually can tell the difference and we can distinguish a certain amp 7/10 times under extreme scrutiny, is it really worth the thousands you are shelling out to get that nearly-imperceivable .01% increase in performance?

Not looking to stir up any heated debate. I’ve been in audio for several years now and have always thought about this.
asianatorizzle
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
7,068 posts
 
The ability to drive difficult loads. How robust is the power supply? etc. You can make an amp that sounds acceptable at low levels driving easy loads. But, when you really need power (not volume), it is like trying to get large flows of water through a small diameter pipe. not going to happen. That is why power supply design to date is still extremely important.
The ability to drive difficult loads doesn't seem to be helpful to any amplifier, because its easy to see on the spec sheet and by listening to the amp on a hard load that its making more distortion. The problem is, such distortion is audible as brightness, harshness and a loss of detail. You can take any amplifier and just by putting it on a higher impedance/easier-to-drive load, it will immediately sound smoother with more detail. That is true whether its tube, transistor or class D. You can both hear it and see it in the specs- this is one of the few areas where the ear and the specs agree.
I do agree though that robust power supply design is one of the things that set high end amps apart from the mid fi.
dave_b's avatar
dave_b
2,267 posts
 
I know what real “symbols” sound like...I was a ”drumber”:). So thayr Minorl!

- Just kidding around, ok?
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Drumb and Drumber
bigkidz
1,784 posts
 
I do agree with the information that some of the designers and builders have said.   I have mentioned the Lafayette my 550 tube amp many times before mainly because of the power supply.  I have a friend who buys used gear all the time from estate sales.   From hi xx amps to old Sony maranta kenwood etc.   I can hear the differences between every one of them.   Not very hard.  I also repair gear. And do a lot of counterpoint amps.  I can hear those differences very easily.   Go figure.  Agree with matching. The counterpoint sounds better with matching they ipolar transistors and the fm acoustic amps sound great for ss amps because of the parts matching.  Happy listening
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
7,068 posts
 
Indeed. And you and I both know why. Well matched parts. When we talk about measurements here I'd like to think we're talking about more than the most basic facts on the side of the box. To really understand what a distortion figure means it needs to be related to an FFT. I don't think .005% is very impressive or desirable if it's 5th order.
+1

Yes- you aren't going to get much in the way of parts matching when the amp is built to a 3-figure price target.
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