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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
 
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.
kw6
433 posts
 
Asianator,

Best way is bring amp to your home use device to calibrate sound levels. Have a friend  hook up different amps covered so you don't know what is hooked up. Take as long as you want and decide what you like. Usually tube has good presence but loss of fine detail. Solid state sounds more tight but very detailed. I have found tube pre with solid state application works best. Yes most important is the speaker and how it works with your room.
wolf_garcia
4,650 posts
 
Well designed tube amps can, and often do, display astonishing detail and generally more actual tonal accuracy (harmonic content is what music is) than most SS amps can hope for. No contest.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
7,068 posts
 
Usually tube has good presence but loss of fine detail. Solid state sounds more tight but very detailed.
I find that tubes generally have more detail than solid state, in particular when it comes to low level detail. Its the low level detail that is the argument for tubes. Solid state by contrast is brighter (due to higher ordered harmonic distortion), and often people mistake that for detail.
kosst_amojan
2,095 posts
 
Can you explain that? The same phenomenon that give rise to various orders of harmonic distortion exist with both tubes and transistors. Well matched tubes will tend towards higher odd order harmonics just like transistors do. It seems to me that tubes as gain devices get a lot of credit they don't deserve because they're typically used in much simpler topologies that's should get the credit, but don't. 
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