Quote:
Originally Posted by Kestrel
The amp CANNOT make the music "better" - only play it back more true to the original source.
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You're getting caught up on an ambiguity of language, I think.
When people say that the amp is making the music better, they mean this: it sounds better with the amp than without it.
You're right, it in no way effects the inherent quality of what's being output by your source, but it DOES effect how well the transducer is able to translate this input into the output that you hear.
Thus, an amp does have an effect on the quality of the music--it effects what you hear. We're not talking abstractly about the innate quality contained on the record. We're talking about how well that is translated to actual sound--and the amp plays a part in that.
Think. By your reasoning if an amp can "adequately drive" headphones, then there's nothing more to it. I take it by adequately drive you mean drive to listenable volumes. So, what if we had an amp with 50% harmonic distortion, but that could amplify the signal to very high levels? Obviously the amp quality has an effect on the sound quality. And, given this, a better amp which distorts less and better powers your transducers is going to sound better than a different amp. Thus yes, for all intents and purposes, making the music "better."
There are other factors in play other than raw mvA output for some given ohmage, which are the figures you're referring to in products like the NJB3. There are distortion considerations, the type of distortion produces (even vs odd), slew rate, and the like. Ask someone more familiar with these things than me, and I'm sure you'll learn quite a bit about it. You're oversimplifying the matter.