I think that bloom is a natural event that occurs in real, acoustic music. Some might call it "air" but to me it's the overtones and ambiance of a live music scene or event. So a trumpet player plays a ringing high C, there's a "brrr" of the bell that's the overtones adding the trumpets characteristic edge to the sound and that's all mixed with the room reflections and other instruments.
Atmasphere seems to have chosen to define bloom as an artificial event, distortion. I think that bloom is just like frequency response, it can be accurate or not. Added bloom is unnatural and to be avoided, just like a hump in the frequency response at 60 hz is to be avoided. Both are inaccurate and both types of distortion can be euphonically pleasant in certain contexts.
As I've said before, IME, the best SS and tube components have very accurate imaging and get bloom and frequency response right. Some lesser equipment adds bloom and holography to get peoples attention, but it's not good in the long run for most of us. At the top of the heap, both tube and SS are very good in all these respects.
Dave
Atmasphere seems to have chosen to define bloom as an artificial event, distortion. I think that bloom is just like frequency response, it can be accurate or not. Added bloom is unnatural and to be avoided, just like a hump in the frequency response at 60 hz is to be avoided. Both are inaccurate and both types of distortion can be euphonically pleasant in certain contexts.
As I've said before, IME, the best SS and tube components have very accurate imaging and get bloom and frequency response right. Some lesser equipment adds bloom and holography to get peoples attention, but it's not good in the long run for most of us. At the top of the heap, both tube and SS are very good in all these respects.
Dave