New York Times Amplifier Article

[mywifespissed]

Check out the April 1, 2008 New York Times Arts section. There is a write-up of a blind test where low to high priced amps are compared. It seems like too esoteric a topic to be an April Fools joke, but that's what the result is to me.

[Face]

Link?

[mywifespissed]

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1DD1F3DF932A35751C0A9619482 60

There ya go.

[lordxale]

what about the fact the article page has this at the top in fine gray lettering:

By HANS FANTEL
Published: February 1, 1987

I would have been 6 days old! I had to go back and check the date when I read that the Pioneer SX-1500 was a part of the test... :)

That's okay, non-audio nerds probably wouldn't recognize any of those model numbers, anyway.

[cubdog]

So why did they choose to reprint the article. If for April Fools Day the humor is lost on me.

cubdog

[Strangeband]

When you retrieve an article from the New York Times Archives, the date on the masthead will always be the current date. For example, here is another article by Mr. Frantel: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B03E3DE133BF936A2575AC0A9639482 60

[stuwee]

I still have that copy of SR, I kept it because it was such a stupid test to prove his way of thinking, when everyone there would have known when the OTL's were switched in because the room would have gotten alot hotter:thmbsp:

Craig

[E2theNth]

His writing is too loquacious... he could write that first column in one page. Probably why it sounds like an April 1st joke.

I mean seriously: His latest exploratory foray into the misty area where the tenets of engineering butt against the foibles of human perception was undertaken on behalf of Stereo Review and investigates the widely held belief that the sound of different amplifiers cannot be clearly distinguished.
43 words

His latest assignment by Stereo Review compared human perception against audio engineering reproduction to investigate the indistinguishable sound between amplifier brands.
21 words - Fixed

Yes, his paragraph sentence is more 'eloquent', but I don't feel like reading the Hobbit to get to the meat of a study.

[similost]

Ya know.... this got me to thinking....

I sure would love to see some blind kind of test... Swapping out amps with blindfolded listeners.. I would even like to participate in it... see if people can tell which ones are the $100 amps.. the $10,000 amps, the tube, and the SS... would be very interesting...

Kind of like doing a blind vodka test.. see if people really can pick the best to worst... only using just their ears...

[ElastomerGuy]

Maybe he got paid by the word.

[Teron]

I'm intrigued when people with tens of thousands dollar gear rave about the Sonic Impact T-amp sounding as good, or =better= than their tens of thousands dollar gear.

That tells me something...

But back to what I've said in many posts here at AK. I'm happy listening to a lowly CR-220 as I am a CR-2020 - both sound great.

If I want louder and ability to drive larger speakers, sure I'll take the larger of the two. But for normal reasonable levels...

The little t-amp has been hooked up to many a large speaker here with good results.

Yes, I think a true blind test would be interesting. I also think a true blind test with not mp3s but mp4s/AACs vs actual CDs would be interesting too.

Having just cleaned up some old MP3s I ripped years ago and comparing them to the AAC/MP4s of the same album, I can notice the difference, but for the most part CD vs. MP4 I'll not place any bets.

In fact I'm tempted to burn AAC/MP4s and tell people they're full AIFF rips and see if anyone notices. I do plan on bringing some CDs to the fest to hear on various setups...

:)

[reggaenaut]

Blind tests reveal audio truths.

[ALTEC9846-8A]

I think he is right about the speakers making the biggest difference.People keep talking about rolling tubes in my yaqin 100B tube amp but everyone has a different idea of which tubes to replace.If everyone has different ideas of which tubes to replace,is anyone right? One person told me that he had spent $900 changing tubes and he would tell me which ones to change so I wouldn't go through this expense. I havn't replaced any of the origional tubes.:scratch2::scratch2:

[Tiver]

So the only criteria for matching the output of an A/B within the comparison was volume? Nonsensical.

[grateful]

People declare stuff nonsense when it doesn't support their way of thinking. How else would you match the amps besides volume? Cables are lies also by the way.

[ALTEC9846-8A]

People declare stuff nonsense when it doesn't support their way of thinking. How else would you match the amps besides volume? Cables are lies also by the way.

GOOD POINT!