[Audio Empire]

On Thu, 15 Mar 2012 03:53:47 -0700, Scott wrote
(in article ):


Ideally, an amplifier is defined as "a
straight wire with gain".


I disagree with this ideal. This is an attempt to *define taste.*
Taste is personal. Ideals are personal. So you can't make this claim.


No, this is an attempt to define FUNCTION. The function of an amplifier is to
increase the amplitude of a signal fed to it while adding nothing and taking
nothing away.

Remember, amplifiers amplify more than just audio signals. Do you want the
amplifiers in an MRI machine to introduce distortion and perhaps cause a
diagnostician to miss a patient's tumor? Do you want an airliner's radar
amplifier to be non-linear and make an oncoming plane seem further away than
it really is? Do you want the video amp in your TV monitor to display a
distorted picture? Of course not. You want all of these amplifiers to do what
amplifiers are supposed to do. Increase the amplitude of the signals fed to
them without adding or taking away anything.

The fact that you LIKE certain types of audio distortion is irrelevant to the
definition of an amplifier. You are free to buy all the purposely non-linear
amplifiers you want. But that doesn't change the definition of an amplifier
in any way shape or form.