Agree!
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.
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.
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- 142 posts total
Just for those unaware, SITs and VFETs are just power JFETs.SIT stands for Static Induction Transistor. VFETs are SIT devices. Power JFETs are a different beast:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JFETThere's a lot less info on SITs:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_induction_transistor But there's a pretty good thread about Nelson Pass's rework of the Sony VFET circuit in DIYAudio.com. The kit that he came up with was excellent- all sold out now... It is one of the best solid state amps I've heard. |
That's not at all in agreement with what I've been told by Nelson. When I asked about the viability of adapting the F5 to power JFETs he pointed me to an example he'd built using the Sony devices. SITs, VFETs, and JFETs are all vertical junction field effect depletion mode devices with triodic conductance curves. I've always seen them generically called JFETs unless somebody was talking about a specific brand of device. |
- 142 posts total