Amp/Preamp Asylum

RE: N core

173.239.221.131

josh358

P

In Reply to: RE: N core posted by Davey on January 02, 2018 at 06:57:06

I'm not so sure in this case. I've been puzzled by the same phenomenon in my AHB2. It's the cleanest amp I've ever heard, precisely as one would expect given its vanishingly low distortion and in particular its feedforward compensation for crossover distortion. But I have the impression that the transient reproduction doesn't isn't right. I have no idea why from a technical perspective -- I can think of many possibilities, given the design -- but the transients seem rounded off, and that sucks the life out of the music. I don't think we're talking the absence of distortion here.

Follow Ups:

RE: N core - Davey 21:09:13 01/20/18 (1)
If transient production isn't right, and transients are rounded off, that's distortion Josh. :) (Whether it's measureable or not is another task.)

Stirring the pot with these guys, I was purposely talking with diffuse and not concise language. :) It's always some subjective aspect of the performance they hang their hat on. I have no problem with that, but you can't have it both ways.

Dave.
- RE: N core - josh358 00:39:40 01/21/18 (0)
  You have a point. :-)
  
  For what it's worth, and speaking personally rather than technically, I prefer "straight wire with gain" accuracy. I find that euphonic coloration becomes cloying and annoying after a while and I don't think that distortion adds something to recordings of acoustical instruments, which in real life have a gusto and purity that makes our efforts sound pathetic, and so no lack of impact!
  
  Speaking technically, I'm really curious about this issue of dynamic distortion. Clearly we're missing something because this doesn't seem to show up on steady state measurements of the harmonic spectrum or IMD, which I find normally correlate pretty well with the way a good amplifier sounds in its linear range for reasons that anyone who has ever played with additive synthesis and noted the effect of harmonic spectrum on timbre will understand. And it doesn't seem to show up on conventional dynamic measurements, either, we've known how to deal with TIM for years. The main candidates I can think of are feedback loop issues, power supply impedance/sagging, and the way the amplifier/feedback loop responds to back EMF, which could explain some of the long time constant stuff I hear on piano ADSR. But the AHB2 is a complicated beast, what with its feedforward amp (if I understand correctly) and rail switching, so I can see other possibilities -- assuming I'm not imagining things!

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