If there are so many variables then why even bring up the old argument that
all amps sound the same? The fact is that in real world situations you
usually get what you pay for. Given that at some price point the benefits
are not significant to justify the extra dollars. I do understand how
amplifiers work and specs don't always tell the true tale of what the
consumer is buying or how it will sound. I don't believe you can measure,
with instruments, how an amp will wound in the real world. It's like fine
wine - you can measure the alcohol content of two fine wines but can you
can't measure the fragrance and taste. I'll take my ears over your
instruments any day. No offense but that is how I feel. Please come over
with your Radio Shack amp and I will challenge you that I can spot the
inferior amp - every time! Even at low listening levels. Cheap amps don't
have the same revealing amplification as a well made amp. And it's not
distortion that is the deciding factor. There are many other factors that
your instruments can't measure.
"MZ" wrote in message
...
Well I agree with everything you wrote. However, there are many here who
believe that amps all sound the same.

That's not quite what we're telling you. We're telling you that two amps
that *AREN'T CLIPPING* will sound the same. The reason for this is
because even the worst amps don't present enough distortion or a poor
enough
frequency response to be distinguished. Especially when you consider that
speakers, by their very nature, produce a huge amount of distortion and a
screwy frequency response. And even moreso when we're talking about road
noise and the poor listening conditions of a car.

This doesn't make sense because how
could an amp with a superior circuit design and premium parts sound the
same
as a RadioShack special.

Because the RadioShack special will reproduce the sound with literally no
distortion. The technology is there to do it extremely cheaply. Sure,
the amp may shut down when you push it, or it may be more prone to
breaking, or it may only deliver half of what they claim it will deliver,
but when it's actually working it will sound perfect.

I've personally have auditioned many amps on my
Klipschorns and can testify that all amps don't sound the same.

You never did it under controlled conditions, so how do you know what to
attribute the sound difference to?

I don't buy
into the theory that distortion is what I'm hearing because even at
moderate
levels I can hear a substantial difference.

What else could you be hearing? Distortion is, by definition, a deviation
of the output signal with respect to the input signal. If there's no
deviation of the signal, then it will move the speaker in the exact same
way...therefore, it's impossible for a sound difference to occur.

I'm sure that some speakers are
not revealing enough to hear much of a difference but with Klipschorns
you
hear everything that is present. My Father in-law is an engineer and he
has
a cheap Bose system and it sounds like ****.

The reason it sounds like **** is because the speakers are poor, the
amplifier is clipping, and there's a substantial amount of signal
processing going on.

He laughed when I bought a
tube amp for my Klipschorns and thought that it couldn't possibly sound
good. Well it sounded amazing although I still prefer my SS amp. But
yeah
believe what you want and buy the low-end gear if it makes you happy.

I don't expect anyone to "believe" anything. It's not generally wise to
believe something that someone says for no good reason at all. If you
really want the truth, then you have no other option but to learn how
amplifiers work and then come to the conclusion yourself. I'd be more
than happy to suggest some introductory electronics textbooks that will
help you learn these things. After that, maybe you'd be able to bench
test your own amps with no expense other than a good computer sound card.