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For all of you who've experienced benefits to class A, can you explain why this topology would lead to better sound?
Is it higher levels of harmonic distortion? More dynamics due to the always on nature of the transistors? Clipping which leads to the rounding out of peaks?
I've owned and operated 2 class A USA made amps. Both are the same amp but came in rack mount and standard width. Ratings are as follows. It does sound smoother and more musical. View attachment 235620
I've got to say this sir - and you know it's coming - 0.02% distortion is what without properly working it out, -65dB or so? That's almost audible.
A respected UK designer once told me that certainly as of the 90's, the newer generations of output devices were so well matched and capable, AB was absolutely fine at moderate bias settings and A totally ridiculous (he loathed audiophiles inclined to audiophooldom!). Got to say I loved his amps back then (AVI) as you turned them on, enjoyed music for hours and then turned them off after, the amps running barely warm even when thrashed.
For all of you who've experienced benefits to class A, can you explain why this topology would lead to better sound?
Is it higher levels of harmonic distortion? More dynamics due to the always on nature of the transistors? Clipping which leads to the rounding out of peaks?
Look here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...tion-vs-linear-amps.38063/page-2#post-1341075 (previous page) It is just the lack of so called cross over distortion! Cross over distortion, if high enough, is a nasty sounding distortion. Earley transistor class-AB amps did suffer often from it and therefore is was also named "Transistorsound". But modern class-AB amps suppresses this kind of distorsion more than far enough in general.
Look here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...tion-vs-linear-amps.38063/page-2#post-1341075 (previous page) It is just the lack of so called cross over distortion! Cross over distortion, if high enough, is a nasty sounding distortion. Earley transistor class-AB amps did suffer often from it and therefore is was also named "Transistorsound". But modern class-AB amps suppresses this kind of distorsion more than far enough in general.
Ok, but we're talking about modern linear A/B amplifiers characterized as "sterile" in comparison with distortion numbers that have more zeroes than Bezos' net worth.
Audible does not mean distractable! Tube amps sound fine with 0.5% audible distortion. Your bass speakers even wit a few percent distortion. Distortion expressed in % doesn't say anything about the quality.
Agree. But if you go that way, where do you draw the border of "Audible"? For DAC's, at ASR, the line was drawn the at -120dB. So it looks reasonable to that for power amps as well.
Depending on your age, you might have. If you had one of these in the 60's or 70's, it would have been class-A.
Most regular radios, car radios, and TVs had class-A output stages in the 60's & 70's. Once integrated circuits took over, I'd guess the default became class A/B.
Agree. But if you go that way, where do you draw the border of "Audible"? For DAC's, at ASR, the line was drawn the at -120dB. So it looks reasonable to that for power amps as well.
@KSTR figured out that the left and right channels were swapped during recording! Presumably this must have been the case when listening too! The calculations had been done in stereo. This changes the numbers and shows smaller changes between amps when fed directly but still has a change...
For all of you who've experienced benefits to class A, can you explain why this topology would lead to better sound?
Is it higher levels of harmonic distortion? More dynamics due to the always on nature of the transistors? Clipping which leads to the rounding out of peaks?
That beast is not a pure (full) class-A, but just partly class-A! Looking at the cooling capability no more than 75 - 100 Watts class-A, higher levels in class-B. Power requirements states 300W... so class-A bias will be no more than about 100W/channel
@KSTR figured out that the left and right channels were swapped during recording! Presumably this must have been the case when listening too! The calculations had been done in stereo. This changes the numbers and shows smaller changes between amps when fed directly but still has a change...
www.audiosciencereview.com
Don’t forget about this thread. I do agree that you should be able to do this in EQ but it is not clear what settings should be applied. I also want to reiterate, if you hear a difference, you must be able to measure the difference with a PK Metric greater than -50 dBFS and have negative controls showing that measurement of identical products has a PK metric in the range of -90 dB or better. (In that case, the same exact setups were giving me around -120 dB!)
For all of you who've experienced benefits to class A, can you explain why this topology would lead to better sound?
Is it higher levels of harmonic distortion? More dynamics due to the always on nature of the transistors? Clipping which leads to the rounding out of peaks?
Themaltrack is way to slow to be effective for distortion cancellation at audio frequencies. Its only pupose is to help stabilising the operating point of the amplifier when the amplifier heats up. However is has nothing to do with the "Class-A sound"
@KSTR figured out that the left and right channels were swapped during recording! Presumably this must have been the case when listening too! The calculations had been done in stereo. This changes the numbers and shows smaller changes between amps when fed directly but still has a change...
www.audiosciencereview.com
Don’t forget about this thread. I do agree that you should be able to do this in EQ but it is not clear what settings should be applied. I also want to reiterate, if you hear a difference, you must be able to measure the difference with a PK Metric greater than -50 dBFS and have negative controls showing that measurement of identical products has a PK metric in the range of -90 dB or better. (In that case, the same exact setups were giving me around -120 dB!)
Agree with that. Problem is when you see differences in the measurements it is most time hard to correlate to what you hear. Historical there is IMO confidence that a pleasant sounding amplifier should have the distortion harmonics profile dropping off gradually and as fast as possible.
Agree with that. Problem is when you see differences in the measurements it is most time hard to correlate to what you hear. Historical there is IMO confidence that a pleasant sounding amplifier should have the distortion harmonics profile dropping off gradually and as fast as possible.
Pleasant or unpleasant is up to the listener. That's why I prefer transparent systems, so I can get my choice of distortion from the source itself (I love high distortion as part of the music creation, no need to add extra sauce).
If you had one of these in the 60's or 70's, it would have been class-A.
