[Stanfoo]

i am not sure which type of amps are better, transparent or warm amps? what do you prefer?

 

[thatBeatsguy]

  i am not sure which type of amps are better, transparent or warm amps? what do you prefer?

Depends on the headphones/IEMs you have and what sound you're looking for.

 

[Music Alchemist]

The job of an amp is to faithfully amplify the signal, not color the sound. Use selection of headphones and equalization to get more warmth. ...Or just blow your money on a tube amp that essentially functions as an overpriced EQ device.

 

[Mr Rick]

  The job of an amp is to faithfully amplify the signal, not color the sound. Use selection of headphones and equalization to get more warmth. ...Or just blow your money on a tube amp that essentially functions as an overpriced EQ device.

That might be a bit harsh. LOL  Many well designed tube amps have just as good a FR and SQ as SS amps.

 

[Music Alchemist]

  That might be a bit harsh. LOL  Many well designed tube amps have just as good a FR and SQ as SS amps.

 
I was referring to tube amps with really lush colorations and such. (Of course, this depends on the tubes used.)

 

[kramer5150]

Both have their benefits and I switch back and forth depending on the headphone and my mood... see my profile.
 
My cleanest, least colored amp is a discrete buffer PPA with OPA627s.
My most heavily colored amp is an earmax OTL with Amperex Holland power tubes and a sylvania gold pin ECC81 driver.
 
My millet hybrid and DV337 fall somewhere in between.
 
Honestly lately I have been plugging my cans straight into the 15" Macbook Pro... no amp at all... shrug

 

[AmethystKT]

The only time I'd say transparent is better for sure is in music production. However, I'd still recommend a transparent amp for it's flexibility. Starting at a neutral sound means you can make it sound bright or warm. Warm amps can only really sound warm. Generally, though, if it sounds good to you, it's better.

 

[tomb]

As long as people are bringing up terminology, I don't interpret "transparent" as meaning "uncolored."  It means all the detail comes through and the amp puts no veil or fog over the music.  It could still be colored - I would regard that as a non-flat frequency response.
 
Maybe some would argue with that, but if the amp is a window into the source and that window is perfectly clear as in "transparent," then you see every detail.  There could still be some refractions, reflections, and even tinting, that could be distorting or shaping what you see - but it would still be largely transparent.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  i am not sure which type of amps are better, transparent or warm amps? what do you prefer?

 
Amplifiers are supposed to amplify the input signal to drive a transducer. There's a reason why they're called "amplifiers" instead of "warmifiers," "warmifier detail defilers," or "brightificator detailifiers."

 

[Shaffer]

Tonal balance and transparency are not congruent with each other. Meaning, a warm amplifier can be just as transparent as a bright-sounding amp. This being said, I prefer having amplifiers with varying degrees in overall tonality. If they're not transparent, relatively speaking, I'm not interested at all. FWIW, you can see what I use in my profile.

 

[Shaffer]

Amplifiers are supposed to amplify the input signal to drive a transducer. There's a reason why they're called "amplifiers" instead of "warmifiers," "warmifier detail defilers," or "brightificator detailifiers."

In a perfect world, which we have yet to discover, sure.

 

[TMRaven]

Transparent is a really harmful word to the hobby.  It's extremely subjective and doesn't really have a set definition.
 
There's tons of amps out on the market that boast specs that far exceed the audible threshold for acoustic 'transparency,' yet they'll all still sound different.  Both warm and bright amps can sound very clear and articulate and likewise sound like mud.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Just to clarify, of course amps don't all sound the same. Measurements aren't all-encompassing in terms of their performance primarily because when they do measurements of amps they just measure the amps, not the end result coming out of several headphones (that you can compare with other amps on the same headphone measured by the same system), and in most cases, what differences there are are due to distortion, and some amps have different kinds of distortion depending on what difficulty it has driving a given load at a given output level. Basically, when two good amps start to sound different, they're just distorting in different ways.
 
That said, just because I'm not one to say in absolute terms that all amps sound the same, does not mean that I'm for deliberately going for an amp in order to EQ the sound. 

 

[Atriya]

It means all the detail comes through and the amp puts no veil or fog over the music.

I am interested in the question of whether this is even possible. With any amp.

I recently bought a Mass Kobo 433 amp for my Weiss DAC501, which has a built-in headphone output. Comparing the output from the 433 vs. the DAC directly, there seems to be quite significant veiling/fogging. And this is from a very well regarded amp & manufacturer. Mass Kobo's amps are known to be "clean". Interconnects are of very high quality, and likely not the problem.

So far I have heard no amp, tube or SS, that doesn't lose at least a bit of detail & clarity, compared to the headphone output on the DAC.

 

[tomb]

I am interested in the question of whether this is even possible. With any amp.

I recently bought a Mass Kobo 433 amp for my Weiss DAC501, which has a built-in headphone output. Comparing the output from the 433 vs. the DAC directly, there seems to be quite significant veiling/fogging. And this is from a very well regarded amp & manufacturer. Mass Kobo's amps are known to be "clean". Interconnects are of very high quality, and likely not the problem.

So far I have heard no amp, tube or SS, that doesn't lose at least a bit of detail & clarity, compared to the headphone output on the DAC.

One person's "clean" can be another's "veil" or "fog." The other possibility is that the output on the Weiss DAC is substandard. There maybe DC blocking capacitors (fog, veil) on the line-outs so to be compatible with all the unknown equipment out there that might be connected to it. The headphone output on the other hand, can be very simple and tightly controlled on their own DAC, with only a simple headphone load anticipated as a connection.