JWolf
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 3, 2005
- Posts
- 1,118
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- 156
I respect your stance on wanting a neutral amp but not everyone is like you. It seems that you might have had a bad experience with a tube amp since there are tube amps that I think are more neutral than some SS amps. I agree that some tube amps can color the sound too much but most can be changed/corrected to get close to neutral if you so desired with proper tube selection as I've heard with the WA3, BH Crack, and Elise. One thing I did notice is if an amp pairing makes someone go WOW it will never make any music sound worse for that individual because that is the sound signature that they like.
The only time coloration would not be good is for someone working in a studio and doing the recording/mastering, for everyone else I believe its a preference/choice.
Let's say you have an amp that adds bass. You have a track with not so much bass, it may then sound better. But take a bass heavy track and add more bass and you could be overdoing it. You could have an amp that stretches the sound left/right but not so much front/back and the imaging may be off. There are times coloration can work and times when it doesn't work. Not every song works with coloration. I prefer neutral. I'll do my coloring with the headphones.