Linear vs Switched mode PSU

[Jimbo]

One mans distortion is another mans sonic Nirvana.

I was reading an interesting review of a Hifi product the other day and the journalist was joined by a couple of other people to listen to the equipment. What the reviewer found, and I know this sounds obvious, was that each person listening to the equipment perceived different aspects both in how the equipment sounded but also highlighted which aspects were important to them.

Now we all know that listening to a system and evaluating it depends where you are sitting in relation to the equipment but also taking into fact our own different perceptions of hearing and ability to hear, we all come up with a different result. It is often the case that what one person finds great about a pair of speakers maybe totally different to another and therefore colour our judgement but delving deeper it is also true that different components of the sound are latched onto by the listener.

For example one person may notice how much air surrounds an instrument whilst another may be drawn to the realism of the vocals. We all have sonic clues that tell us what we like and for some these maybe multiple and therefore have to tick lots of boxes before the hairs start to stand on the back of our neck.

What I have learned is that with differing perception and hearing we all judge things quite differently and some folk may hear no difference at all between say one cable and another where someone else hears night and day.

So taking into consideration the hearing ability and principles of an audio equipment designer, what they believe is important to them when building and listening to a piece of equipment may or may not be what someone else thinks sounds good. We can only put forward our own perceptions as we hear them but should always be mindful that they may not be what others hear.

[Marco]

So taking into consideration the hearing ability and principles of an audio equipment designer, what they believe is important to them when building and listening to a piece of equipment may or may not be what someone else thinks sounds good.

Indeed, and that's the bottom line... It's hee-haw use designing something that equates to a measurist's wet dream, if no-one likes how it sounds!!

It's also why, in the design of audio equipment, there can be no 'one true path'

Marco.

[Macca]

Some recordings, especially studio recordings, do sound sterile. If you 'jazz up' your amp to make sterile recordings sound 'more musical' what does this do to recordings that are not sterile? Makes them sound a bit rough and ragged, and then people start to fixate on recording quality instead of musical content and the amp starts to dictate what you listen to.

Okay you can get some amplifiers that are 'unmusical' and sound bland and boring with pretty much any music. But I suspect this has nothing to do with the amount or type of distortion they add and has more to do with the quality of construction; the money being spent on cosmetics instead, or in the case of low budget products, not being spent at all.

[Marco]

Some recordings, especially studio recordings, do sound sterile. If you 'jazz up' your amp to make sterile recordings sound 'more musical' what does this do to recordings that are not sterile? Makes them sound a bit rough and ragged, and then people start to fixate on recording quality instead of musical content and the amp starts to dictate what you listen to.

Absolutely, but that argument centres on how one defines 'musical' or 'sterile', and crucially how it's applied to recordings or equipment design. For me, anally obsessing over removing all forms of distortion can sometimes result in removing information that should be there, in order for music to sound real.

For me, there's much more to it than that, which requires some lateral thinking. To an extent, you have to allow equipment to 'breathe', not strangle it to death...

Remember the 'spec wars' of the 70s? Some of those Jap amps were more distortion-free than a very distortion-free thing, but they were also about as musically involving as a badger's fart!

As ever with things audio, it's a question of striking the right balance between technical accuracy and musicality, and you can bet your boots that the designers who get that right the most, generally create the best sounding equipment

Marco.

[Macca]

...

Remember the 'spec wars' of the 70s? Some of those Jap amps were more distortion-free than a very distortion-free thing, but they were also about as musically involving as a badger's fart!

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No I am too young but I think it was Hitachi who came up with a flagship power amp that supposedly measured 'perfectly', and which was denounced by the UK press as being boring and uninvolving. Not having heard one I don't know if that is true or not, what I do know is that the UK hifi press gave us 'flat earth' which was all about using distortion to make it sound 'real' and 'exciting' and that this tends to be the sort of kit I really don't like from a personal point of view. So I might find the 'perfect' Hitachi to be right up my street.

As Jim says above we are not all looking for the same sound. Don't know about anyone else but I have had the 'idea' of what my ideal sounding hi-fi system is like in my head for a long time, since being a teenager in fact. I suspect that is true of most of us, but I have learned that what we consider our ideal varies quite a bit from person to person.

[Jimbo]

No I am too young but I think it was Hitachi who came up with a flagship power amp that supposedly measured 'perfectly', and which was denounced by the UK press as being boring and uninvolving. Not having heard one I don't know if that is true or not, what I do know is that the UK hifi press gave us 'flat earth' which was all about using distortion to make it sound 'real' and 'exciting' and that this tends to be the sort of kit I really don't like from a personal point of view. So I might find the 'perfect' Hitachi to be right up my street.

As Jim says above we are not all looking for the same sound. Don't know about anyone else but I have had the 'idea' of what my ideal sounding hi-fi system is like in my head for a long time, since being a teenager in fact. I suspect that is true of most of us, but I have learned that what we consider our ideal varies quite a bit from person to person.

Your last paragraph is so true Martin. I built my current system around what pressed all the buttons for me when I was in late teens,maybe there is something in that fact. Like tasting your first good curry, it is a memory that is deeply ingrained and very influential in later life. Our impressions made when we are young are very strong whether right or wrong but they influence us significantly.

Marco, I am old enough to remember the THD wars amplifier manufacturers used to sell their stuff!

[Marco]

No I am too young but I think it was Hitachi who came up with a flagship power amp that supposedly measured 'perfectly', and which was denounced by the UK press as being boring and uninvolving.

Me too, but I've read some of the magazines produced during that era, which featured reviews of the amps in question, but more importantly have in recent times heard some of those amps myself, and rather 'meh' sounding is about right. You'd use them more for producing background music than anything else.

However, they're not all like that, hence why some of the best vintage 'battleship build' Jap amps can sound great, but as a 'breed' in general, they do have the tendency to sound musically anodyne.

As Jim says above we are not all looking for the same sound. Don't know about anyone else but I have had the 'idea' of what my ideal sounding hi-fi system is like in my head for a long time, since being a teenager in fact. I suspect that is true of most of us, but I have learned that what we consider our ideal varies quite a bit from person to person.

Absolutely, although I usually just judge things as I hear them, without any preconceptions of what my 'ideal' sound is. Luckily, I'm at the stage now with my system where I very rarely consider how it 'sounds'; I just simply enjoy the music it makes

Marco.

[Marco]

Marco, I am old enough to remember the THD wars amplifier manufacturers used to sell their stuff!

Lol - it all seemed rather ridiculous to me... Like one big measurist's 'wankathon'!

Marco.

[Pharos]

I agree with Jez about an amp contributing nothing, but of course there are degrees of failure to get near that ideal.

I hope that members agree that on the whole the pursuit of zero error has resulted in many very competent amplifiers which sound very similar.

The criteria we use to measure amps perhaps do not fully define the behaviour of an amplifier; we don't know everything.

I also agree that we may well have differing sensibilities that result in us being more aware of some error characteristics than others, and so we probably each choose those errors which least offend us.

It is important to realise that what we hear is largely the result of our brain processing, and that that is very much open to subjectivity.

In the case of the sound engineer with a differing hearing sensitivity, surely this would also apply both to the source sound which he hears and to what he hears on his mix; he would try replicate that sound and the error would apply both to the original sound, and to his facsimile of it.

[Macca]

Lol - it all seemed rather ridiculous to me... Like one big measurist's 'wankathon'!

Marco.

More like the Marketing Department's wankathon. As you know if you need to sell your product in a saturated market you need a USP, something to hang you hat on. You can't just say 'Buy our amp it sounds really good'. You can't hear a magazine advertisement. So they meet with the engineers and ask them 'What is so great about this amp?' and are told 'well it has 0.000003% THD' (it is always 3 for some reason no matter how many noughts are in front) so that's what they highlight in the ad.

Now the ad, unless it is for a budget amp you might buy blind mail order, is only designed to get you into the showroom to listen. After that it is the dealer's job to carry on the sales process. If great distortion figure are getting people's attention, that is what they will run with.

That hasn't happened in a long time in the UK because we had flat earth and were told specs are a waste if time and tell you nothing - just go to the dealer and listen with no pre-conceived notions. So the ads had to move away from selling via specs and into more abstract territory - the Naim ads of the 70s and 80s are a good example of that.

But none of that is the fault of the engineers.