What is the most analytical sounding amplifier that you have heard?


Some people like analytical and even consider this quality a signal of neutrality or honesty, so I don't want this to come off as a hate thread. ;-) 
seanheis1

Showing 3 responses by millercarbon

the Stereophile definition is the best that I know of:

analytical - "Very detailed, almost to the point of excess."

No, that isn't even a good definition let alone the best. I already gave you a much better one:
 "sterile". Like everything is there, only with all the life sucked out of it.

Now let me explain, and help you understand the difference.

Details are all the myriad subtle little bits and pieces that go together in music. All kinds of things qualify as details, everything from the tiniest treble way up high to the articulate tight and tuneful bass note, and everything in between. It is impossible to have too much detail.  

It is on the other hand entirely possible for these details to be presented with grain, or etch, or conversely they can be liquid smooth. Same details, just one way grating and fatiguing, the other pleasurable, enjoyable, preferable. One way the details are artificial, one might even say analytical. The other they are natural. One might say lifelike. 

So you see a much better definition of analytical is everything there, nice and neutral, only sterile, lifeless.

See how much better that is?
Mark Levinson is the epitome of analytical. One time I was listening to a record that seemed almost perfect at first, but yet within minutes I was sick and tired and uncomfortable and really did not want to continue listening at all. This fascinated me. Why? What was wrong? So I kept listening. Very neutral. A little too bright or etched but no more so than a lot of others. Incredibly detailed, usually a good thing. After a while my mind landed on, "sterile". Like everything was there, only with all the life sucked out of it. 

Which I think is the true meaning of analytical. Everything there, only with all the life sucked out of it. Like if you analyze a rose, you get all the cellular and molecular structure, everything but the rose. Like that.  

Okay. So once I figured that out, that is quite enough of this record (Jacintha, Autumn Leaves) and back to the shelf it went, where it has rested for years, never played, kept around only in case someone wants a demo of everything wrong with solid state. 

What does this have to do with Mark Levinson, you ask? Before putting it away I had a look through the liner notes. Recorded and mastered exclusively on Mark Levinson electronics. So there you go.