Maybe the OP should present his argument on the Naim Forum and see the response. Naim Audio seem to have a nearly a 'cult' following who share their musical love with the 'Naim sound'. Maybe they should be invited to proper staged blind listening tests and see if they can tell the difference.
Is there actually a difference?
Speakers sound different - that is very obvious. But I’ve never experienced a drastic change between amps. Disclaimer that I’ve never personally ABX tested any extremely high end gear.
With all these articles claiming every other budget amp is a "giant killer", I’ve been wondering if there has ever been blind tests done with amplifiers to see if human ears can consistently tell the difference. You can swear to yourself that they do sound different, but the mind is a powerful thing, and you can never be sure unless it’s a truly blind test.
One step further - even IF we actually can tell the difference and we can distinguish a certain amp 7/10 times under extreme scrutiny, is it really worth the thousands you are shelling out to get that nearly-imperceivable .01% increase in performance?
Not looking to stir up any heated debate. I’ve been in audio for several years now and have always thought about this.
With all these articles claiming every other budget amp is a "giant killer", I’ve been wondering if there has ever been blind tests done with amplifiers to see if human ears can consistently tell the difference. You can swear to yourself that they do sound different, but the mind is a powerful thing, and you can never be sure unless it’s a truly blind test.
One step further - even IF we actually can tell the difference and we can distinguish a certain amp 7/10 times under extreme scrutiny, is it really worth the thousands you are shelling out to get that nearly-imperceivable .01% increase in performance?
Not looking to stir up any heated debate. I’ve been in audio for several years now and have always thought about this.
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Re. “…there can be an appreciable difference between high-end and mid-fi gear”… Yes—but, by large margin, that “appreciable difference” is often just $$$$. And that’s not a very compelling distinction. The assigned job of the power amplifier is to accurately amplify the signal, not to reshape it in some pre-contrived way that renders sound more euphonic. This latter function is best relegated to the loudspeaker system. Any departure from accurate reproduction of the incoming signal represents amplifier error. And amplifier error represents unintended distortion of the incoming signal. It doesn’t matter if the distortion encompasses frequency response, or extraneous harmonics, or waveform shape, or added noise—it’s an inaccurate portrayal of the incoming signal. I personally subscribe to the school that says accuracy improves when any form of distortion is minimized, and many solid-state power amplifiers meet that criteria quite well today. Differences are often more a matter of power output capability, load impedance sensitivity, and reliability, and you need to get in deeper than mere listening to evaluate the value impact. |
I have recently installed my old amp because my 'new' amp is going for an upgrade. Both are the same SS brand, one just higher up in the series. Even in our acoustically very bad living room I was surprised to hear the difference when playing at low to low/medium volume. Crank it up though, and the acoustics of the room make the differences in amplifiers inaudible. So Peter Aczel, of the Audio Critic to my ears is wrong and I wasn't even trying to hear difference, it was just obvious in casual listening. I also don't have great ears anymore. They get tested for work every few years so I know have a slight dip in my left ear. Maybe Peter listens at high volume, who knows. |
see link I run some of these and even to a trained musician they beat All the usual players in Hi Fi. anyone else using similar? https://www.atecorp.com/products/ae-techron/7782 |
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