chung wrote:

Wylie Williams wrote:

The problem I have in deciding if I should upgrade my systems's amp is
that I only have access to amps that are reviewed by magazines as being
very
fine (Parasound and HALO). As I read it on RAHE these magazine reviews may
not be at all reliable. I may not have been unfortunate enough to have ever
had a well designed amp in my system, and even if I were to borrow a few I
have no idea that they would be amps from the limited group of "competent
designs". I have listened mostly to Parasound and HALO, with side trips to
YBA, and HK Citation 1, but RAHE experts tell me that there is no way to
find out if these are good guys or bad guys. The only way is to gather a
bunch of amps and do ABX tests for myself. But I don't even know the
identity of amps can be used as reference example of good amps. RAHE
tells
me they exist, but nobody can make their fingers hit those keys to name
brands and models.
This leads to a secondary but related point - Given the number of
participants who assure the group repeatedly that they are truly experts,
what is most surprising is how little specific information they post.

Let me reference you to The Proceedings of the AES 1990 Conference "The Sound
of Audio" which has an analysis and reference list to 23 controlled tests of
power ampliifers; the March 1997 issue of Audio Magazine; the June 1999 Sound &
Vision; the September 1995 issue of Sound & Vision (Canada) for specific
details of controlled listening comparisons.

Any
nunber of people are willing to go into endless detail about why someone
else does not really understand DBT, ABX, cables, wires, jitter, how stupid
audio designers are. etc. etc. etc., but the one post of yours describing
your personal tests of several years ago was the first one that gave
specifics.

I've listed specifics a number of times. You may be 'new' but specifics are
common. Follow www.pcabx.com to the smwtms site results.

Naturally it has been questioned.
What can explain the absence of helpful specifics on RAHE? Is there
a
code of "Don't ask - Don't tell"?

Wylie Williams

You want specifics: in 1995 I publlished results in the Canadian Sound & Vision
where hard-core audiophiles were unable to distiniguish zip cord speaker cable
from their audiophile cables in their personal reference systems; I've also
witnessed a audio salon owner fail to reliably identify his kilobuck ampliifers
from a garden variety integrated amplifier in his personal reference system
(not once but twice.)

In 1998 I conducted a 'series-tweak' experiment where I asked 10 audio
enthusiasts to identify a fully-tweaked system (vacumn tube pre-amp, outboard
DAC, Bryston amp, audiophile interconnects and networked audiophile speaker
cables, special cable dress with resonance-absorbers) with a definitely Geak
system (1976 $99 Heathkit preamp, $200 used-Parasound amp, 16 guage car-audio
zip cord speaker cables with a 25-foot length on one channel and 6-feet on the
other with the long run wrapped around the power leads for the electronics and
junk-box interconnects) and not one was able to reliably tell them apart in
single listener sessions.

Need MORE details?



Was there something that you did not like about your amp?

I can tell you how I chose my amp. I was looking for one that can
deliver 200W continuously into 8 ohms, and 400W continuously into 4
ohms. I also wanted it to be stable driving into 2 ohms, if not 1 ohm. I
wanted it to be solid-state because of reliability and quick power-up,
and I wanted to limit the cost to less than $4K in 1990 dollars.

I listened to several well-known ones, and I had trouble telling them
apart when the levels are matched.

OK; finally someone who will admit this.

I finally picked the Aragon 4004 Mk2
because (a) it sounded the same as several models a lot more expensive,
(b) the layout and the construction looked clean to me, and (c) the
specs matched what I need. I have been very happy with the selection.

Perfectly reasonable selection criteria.

Yes, there might be others that would do the job equally well, I am
sure, but once I bought it, I have really not worried about the choice.

No problemo .... as the new California Gov might say.

In the past, when I had test equipment and huge resistive loads
available to me, I also liked to measure amplifiers. I have not checked
the Aragon on the bench that thoroughly, though, since I could not
locate a 2-ohm load and I am too lazy to build one.

Do you have any interesting stories about when you did 'like' to measure
amplifiers?