fini Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 I was testing a Dynaco Mark 4 amp today. I don't own a preamp, so I used the pre-out from my McIntosh Mac 1900 (solid state) receiver. I had the left channel tube amplified, and the right amplified by the 1900. Amazingly, I could not hear a difference between the two. The power on each was about the same, and the qualities of sound were extremely similar. I'm guessing that this has mostly to do with both channels being driven by the same preamp. BTW, it sounded great! Weird, huh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdm56 Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 Welcome to the "all amplifiers sound the same" club. ps: your complimentary subscription to SOUND&VISION will begin arriving shortly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted December 3, 2004 Author Share Posted December 3, 2004 Crap, Douggie, I already receive S&V... BTW, that was a good one, really got me going! Here I thought (madly wished) I had champagne & caviar ears... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 I'd like to be convinced. Does anyone have an ABX test showing that tubes versus SS can be heard? Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minn_male42 Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 ---------------- On 12/3/2004 9:37:14 PM fini wrote: I was testing a Dynaco Mark 4 amp today. I don't own a preamp, so I used the pre-out from my McIntosh Mac 1900 (solid state) receiver. I had the left channel tube amplified, and the right amplified by the 1900. Amazingly, I could not hear a difference between the two. The power on each was about the same, and the qualities of sound were extremely similar. I'm guessing that this has mostly to do with both channels being driven by the same preamp. BTW, it sounded great! Weird, huh? ---------------- like alot of listening when it comes to auditioning equipment, the particular music you listen to can make or break the audition -very exposed female/male vocals..... -sparse instrumentation where you can hear the individual instruments clearly.... -fast guitar passages... -solo piano... -thick orchestral works with very full string parts.... -fast complex rock.... my personal audition material - diana krall, flim and the BB's, carmina burana (SACD), mozart piano sonatas, carpenters, boston (1st album), maynard ferguson (SACD) in all of the above - try to use examples that have the most dynamic range and music that you are familiar with..... pick the right music and you will hear differences in amplifiers, preamps, and source components.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted December 3, 2004 Author Share Posted December 3, 2004 I was listening to a CD: "Blue Chip" by Acoustic Alchemy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minn_male42 Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 listen to a bunch of different music and tell us if you can hear more of a difference Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T2K Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 I can tell you without a doubt that you can hear the difference, and you fini have the speakers that will allow you to understand that difference. Using my Chorus I's and II's the difference is easily noticable with any of my use-to-work Scotts. The difference is the warmth and lack of edge/harshness that is audible comparing your warm sounding KSP400's to say a pair of Corwalls with solid-state. The difference is not small. The preamp probably negated the difference. Gotta go to work. Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdm56 Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 The odd thing to me is, I seriously doubt I could identify any specific amps in a double-blind test, but I would swear that every amp I have actually lived with for significant period of time has had a "sound" of it's own. Does that make me a sub-objectivist? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meuge Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 ---------------- On 12/3/2004 9:37:14 PM fini wrote: I was testing a Dynaco Mark 4 amp today. I don't own a preamp, so I used the pre-out from my McIntosh Mac 1900 (solid state) receiver. I had the left channel tube amplified, and the right amplified by the 1900. Amazingly, I could not hear a difference between the two. Weird, huh? ---------------- It's not weird at all. I would be surprised if you could hear any difference. The human brain has amazing error correction capabilities and it doesn't like asymmetry. Thus, if you're listening to the same track through two speakers, which are being given slightly different tonal characteristics by two different amps, the brain will sort of average the way it sounds, in order to make the sound symmetric across your ears. I would say that quickly switching between the amps would be a better way of comparing. Also, if you can turn each channel on/off independently, that might work too, as long as the source is a duplicated single channel (just take a CD, rip, remove one track, duplicate it into stereo and burn). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted December 4, 2004 Author Share Posted December 4, 2004 meuge, I had the Mac set to mono, and was moving the balance knob back and forth (as well as listening to both, in stereo). I can borrow a tube preamp from C&S, and we can do some more experimentation... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minn_male42 Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 i don't think it's your preamp.... i think it is just showing the high quality amp that the mac has..... for awhile i was using an older pioneer elite receiver as a preamp and i tried more than a few ss amps and a dynaco ST-35 tube amp.... the dynaco sounded drastically different than all of the SS amps that i had tried up to that point...... i was very happy with it until it developed a hum that needed attention.... i had an opportunity to try a carver pro ZR1000 digital amp and i've never looked back....many of the good qualities of the tube amp i had used but with the bottom end impact of a 225 watt per channel ss amp..... btw - i am using a pair of KLF-30's for my mains... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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