Re: Amplifier testing re Charlie's system
April 23rd, 2014, 11:42 am
It's not just that amps sound different or have shortcomings, it's also the speaker- amp synergy , I believe that each speaker has an amp soulmate. Amp A driving Speaker A sounds great or Amp B driving Speaker B sounds great, a lot better than Amp A driving Speaker B or Amp B driving Speaker A. I think that Charlie just found the unaffordable amp soulmate to his glorious speakers 
. Got to save those pennies!
. Got to save those pennies!
Re: Amplifier testing re Charlie's system
April 23rd, 2014, 12:15 pm
I think that if different amps are both very good in all aspects, sometimes the synergy is the result of differences in output impedance resulting in different frequency response curves from the speakers because the crossovers have different impedances at the varous frequencies. That is a simple enough test. You can add resitance in series with the amps and listen to the differences.
At the end of the day it pays to find out what is causing the differences you hear because the "fixes" may have quite different price tags. Please do not take this discussion as a statement from me that the only differences in amps is impedance because that is not true. It is only that sometimes if different amps are the exact same except for output impedance, that difference can be very audible. BTW, that is why the RDs are a good test in one respect, they have very flat impedance, being almost a constant purely resistive load at all frequencies. Any differences you hear are not the result of different output impedances of the amps once you set the levels to match. On the other hand they do not test the ability of amps to work well with highly reactive loads. That is why this test at Charlie's with reactive loads will be very interesting.
Tom
At the end of the day it pays to find out what is causing the differences you hear because the "fixes" may have quite different price tags. Please do not take this discussion as a statement from me that the only differences in amps is impedance because that is not true. It is only that sometimes if different amps are the exact same except for output impedance, that difference can be very audible. BTW, that is why the RDs are a good test in one respect, they have very flat impedance, being almost a constant purely resistive load at all frequencies. Any differences you hear are not the result of different output impedances of the amps once you set the levels to match. On the other hand they do not test the ability of amps to work well with highly reactive loads. That is why this test at Charlie's with reactive loads will be very interesting.
Tom