rodbac
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2003
- Posts
- 1,406
- Likes
- 0
Not really sure why this is such an insult to so many people, but reality is that unless an amp is intentionally designed to distort the signal, it will sound the same as any other.
Do some reading outside of Head-Fi if that upsets you.
Here's an old, but typical, scenario with a few well-known people:
Quote:
Enjoy. I'm out.
Do some reading outside of Head-Fi if that upsets you.
Here's an old, but typical, scenario with a few well-known people:
Quote:
| As some may recall, Steve Zipser, after challenging a number of objectivists to come on down to Sunshine Stereo to be shown the light on cable and amp "sound", agreed to having Tom Nousaine and myself be the first. Strictly as a matter of historical perspective it should be noted that he often stated that people who could not hear these differences were hard of hearing, and that there was Zero chance he would fail in his demonstration. Convinced that he was wrong on both counts, we showed up at Sunshine Stereo (Steve's house) at the scheduled time (Sunday, August 25, 10 AM) to find a note pinned to the door stating that he had to perform an emergency repair at a customer's house. It was 3PM by the time we got started, but we still had time for a ten trial manual switched blind test that day, and some ABXing the next morning. Steve had stated that he felt the ABX box would veil differences, so we had encouraged him to set up a test he felt comfortable with. He planned to use his PASS Aleph 1.2 monoblocks as the reference amps, and a PS Audio basic amp as the "bad" amp, and to manually swap cables for the test. We quickly determined that he had no way to level match these amps, so we substituted a Yamaha AX700 integrated amp, which we had brought along, for the PS Audio amp. The Yamaha's level and balance controls would allow matching of levels quite easily. It should be noted that the Yamaha's preamp was always in the circuit when the Yamaha was playing. Steve's system (a very excellent sounding one, BTW) was an AA DDS Pro transport --->AA DTI Pro 32 anti-jitter device--->Audio Logic DAC---> Pass Aleph L preamp--->StraightWire interconnects--->Pass Aleph 1.2 monoblocks (or the CD input of the Yamaha integrated amp)--->big fat Straightwire speaker cables (approx. 4' long)--->Duntech Marqui speakers. After we did a frequency response check of both amps using a test CD and digital ac voltmeter at the speaker terminals (the Pass was slightly better than the Yamaha), we level matched them at 1 kHz, using the same method. Steve then did some sighted comparisons of the two amps until he thought he had a "fix" on them. To create a random sequence of "unknowns", I flipped a coin ten times, recorded the results, decided heads would be the Yamaha and tails would be the Pass, and used this list for the ten trials. The switching method throughout this first session was to manually swap the interconnects and speaker cables from one amp to the other. During the ten "blind" trials, Steve would leave the room during the swap. (There were others in the room at all times). After the first blind trial, he did another sighted comparison, and then did blind trials #2-#10 with only a couple of short rest periods. During each trial, he played sections of the following tracks: 1) Ricki-Lee Jones "Hi Lili Hi Lo" from "Pop Pop" 2) Harry Connick Jr. "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" from "Harry Met Sally" 3) "Rite of Spring", from Reference Recordings. Results of this session: 3 out of 10 correct. (trials #2, #3, and #7 were correct) That evening Steve and Gigi took us to a wonderful little Italian restaurant and treated us to an absolutely scrumpous meal. The following morning he decided to try the ABX box. It was connected with every attempt to give the advantage to the Pass amps. The ABX box requires an extra interconnect and an extra speaker cable for each channel and each amp. The Pass amps got the shorter of the interconnects and very short (18") StraightWire speaker cables. The Yamaha had to suffer under longer interconnects and extra 6' pieces of zip cord (and of course, the extra built in preamp). The amps were again level matched at 1 kHz. Steve played a variety of music, switching between the A (Yamaha) and B (Pass) amps. After his warmup, he took about an hour to run through ten trials, playing segments from a variety of tracks during each one. Result: 5 out of 10 correct. Next up, Steve's wife Gigi. She had commented during Steve's manual switched test that she definately could hear the difference between amps, but it turned out that what she thought was the Pass (on trial #1) was actually the Yamaha. For her ABX session, Gigi focused in on one particular segment of one track for all 16 of her trials. Result: 9 out of 16 correct. And finally, Steve's audiophile friend, Steve D., was on hand to give it a try. Steve D. brought his own CD's and used a different selection for each of his 10 trials. Result: 4 out of 10 correct. |
Enjoy. I'm out.
