Originally Posted by
Macca
You adding cables, components and a power supply, it's not necessarily/ likely going to be transparent - you add gubbins: sound changes. The question whether it is actually improving technical performance, or degrading it in a good way, is a different matter.
+1 Valve buffers are usually designed to add distortion etc to muck up.. I mean to give "that warm valve sound".
as a "you heard it first here" aside, some power amps (and others, but power amps are most relevant) can be somewhat sensitive to the impedance from which they are driven, and not for any reason one may suspect! The issue is due to device parasitic capacitances (other factors come into play) effecting the phase margin of the loop gain... Ohh.. you've all run away... Anyhow it's much more prevalent with SS amps, and so dependent on circuit topology that some amps may be quite effected by it but most completely immune to it...
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