[Audio Empire]

On Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:02:48 -0700, Scott wrote
(in article ):

On Mar 16, 2:43=A0am, Robert Peirce wrote:
In article , Scott
wrote:

Sorry but I don't accept your rules on amplifiers. They may work for
you but they are not universal. I am quite happy with the euphonic
colorations I get from my amplifier =A0(which is an amplifier whether
you like it or not). And I assure you that you can't duplicate those
euphonic colorations with tone controls or any other stock features
found on other amplifiers. You are free to like what you like but not
free to rewrite defenitions to suit your perosnal tastes and
prejudices.

Well, then, you are stuck. =A0Some people thought the original edison
recorder was as good as it could get until somebody came up with
something better. =A0Then, everybody could hear the difference. =A0Today =
it
is getting almost impossible to hear the difference EXCEPT from an
amplifier that is purposely designed to a non-standard spec; ie,
euphonic colorations.

so how does that make me stuck? Perhaps you think I have never
auditioned a modern SS amp? I have. I prefer the euphonic colorations
of the amp I already have. So how am I stuck? Seems the folks who
can't get past the arbitrary choice of accuracy for the sake of
accuracy are the ones who are stuck.


The term High-Fidelity means a high degree of faithfulness to the original
performance. Ideally (there's that word again), that would require that every
component from the microphone at the performance through the speaker in your
listening room accurately transfer the EXACT sound of the original
performance to some type of portable media and from there, EXACTLY reproduce
it in one's living room. It's an impossible goal, to be sure. One only has to
listen to live music to know how far we are from that goal, regardless of how
good or how much money our audio systems cost. That being said, the
difference between perfect reproduction and what we CAN achieve leaves lots
of room for euphonic colorations that might give one a greater "illusion" of
some aspect of reality to some people than a non euphonically colored
presentation would do. But none of that alters the avowed GOAL of
high-Fidelity to present an accurate reproduction of the original event and
for that, all components must be TRANSPARENT to the original performance,
including any and all amplifying stages from the microphone preamp, and or
mixer to the analog output stage of the source component(s) to the stereo
system's preamp (including phono) through to the power amplifier powering the
speakers.

Whatever. The reality these days is that the audio industry, to a greater or
lesser degree seems to have converged upon the idea of making amplifiers as
transparent as possible. That looks to be the current fashion. I used to love
tube amps and the rich velvety sound they produced. But as my other
components (like CD players, record decks, speakers, etc) became more and
more transparent, I started to notice that Solid State amps that I used to
turn my nose up at gave a sound that was MUCH closer to reality than my much
loved VTL 140 monoblocks and my highly touted Audio Research SP11. I sold
them both last year and bought a squeaky clean Harmon Kardon HK990 Integrated
amp!. With it's built-in 24/192 DAC, and it's room/speaker-equalizing DSP,
I'm now getting performances from my best recordings that are much more
palpably real than anything I got from my expensive, euphonic tube gear. We
live and learn, I guess.