Pelliott321 wrote:
This is a quote from a noted industry leader. If I told you who is was you would laugh, well maybe
anyway please explain cathode degeneration
"To master an art we must first learn the broadest of concepts before we turn to the specifics.
Funneling from the broad to the specific finds its advantage in extending the possible. If you were designing a circuit and wanted to open the sound up, you might know to increase emitter (transistor) or cathode (tube) degeneration values to get there. That knowledge would serve you well. But, a broader understanding of what you’re doing would likely take your design farther because there would be more options available.
The broad concept is that lowering feedback opens sound. Understanding the broad then allows you to choose specifics, each with differing results. If by degeneration we get one flavor. If by loop values, yet another. Both lower feedback, each sounds very different."
This is above "my pay grade" and I would request that David Berning jump in -- as I understand it -- cathode degeneration by virtue of the cathode resistor is a form of local feedback.
The reason so many amplifiers may sound better with little or no feedback is as we discussed regarding motional feedback -- that nasty time delay and after-the-fact correction. Of course you need an amplifier to be linear and stable to begin with to be able to pull it off