Do all SS amplifiers sound alike?

[Pio1980]

Just an elementary observation here. Most of my old receivers have pre-outs. So I took some long cables and changed things around a bit. I feed a variety of different receiver pre-amps to different receiver amps and vise-versa. As expected the pre-amps have lots of color. Less with the amps, but still color.
The Yamaha/Sansui combo clash his very nice. I think I'll try that for a while.

This is why I generally avoid preamps, with few exceptions, the ones with high quality parts in a very spare implementation.

 

[Pio1980]

Most people get this part wrong. In the challenge, the Carver amp was made to sound like a Mark Levinson amplifier. At first it was declared Bob had failed, the Carver amp now sounded "better" than the target amp (Bob didn't know it was a Levinson). So he went back and worked some more to make the Carver sound "worse?". When he returned the challenge was met, they couldn't tell the amplifiers apart.

Here's where most people get confused, the line of TFM (transfer function modified) amplifiers were never intended to replicate the Levinson amplifier, hell no, Bob had his own reference amplifiers for that, the Silver 7's.

How this amp came into existence is another funny Carver story. It was stated by some Carver critics that although Bob built "nice" stuff it was more pedestrian and targeted the masses. Bob took umbrage with this and decided to show just what be could do if he really wanted, how great was that, it brought us the amplifier below. So it's no surprise the TFM amps sounded great but didn't sound like the Levinson amplifier, they were never meant to.

View attachment 1332620

I've owned a lot of Carver gear over the yrs, all great, but then it's all been separates, none of his more "pedestrian" stuff lol.

Thot the target amp was tube, forget the make, but while not identical sounding in longer term listening, it didn't shame itself.
I had one of the Carver amps for a bit, decent sounding with a rather vicious turn-off thump, before a loan-out made it disappear. I still have half the factory fix instructions somewhere, the other half may have gone looking for the amp, who knows.

 

[Gibsonian]

Just an elementary observation here. Most of my old receivers have pre-outs. So I took some long cables and changed things around a bit. I feed a variety of different receiver pre-amps to different receiver amps and vise-versa. As expected the pre-amps have lots of color. Less with the amps, but still color.
The Yamaha/Sansui combo clash is very nice. I think I'll try that for a while.

Yeah the pre outs are wonderful to have on a receiver. Makes them much more flexible to play with.

 

[Grenadeslio]

And to think I could have saved a couple mil getting one of these


As it sounds exactly like one of these lol.



https://newatlas.com/pivetta-opera-only/29824/

 

[Gibsonian]

Yes, identical, if driven within each amp's limits...…………...

 

[Grenadeslio]

Thot the target amp was tube, forget the make, but while not identical sounding in longer term listening, it didn't shame itself.
I had one of the Carver amps for a bit, decent sounding with a rather vicious turn-off thump, before a loan-out made it disappear. I still have half the factory fix instructions somewhere, the other half may have gone looking for the amp, who knows.

It wasn't supposed to sound like the Levinson in production, it was TFM to sound like the Carver reference amp, I believe I already stated this. I'm quite familiar with the event.

 

[quiet]

And to think I could have saved a couple mil getting one of these
View attachment 1332697

As it sounds exactly like one of these lol.
View attachment 1332698
View attachment 1332699

https://newatlas.com/pivetta-opera-only/29824/

That's funny.

 

[Grenadeslio]

Yes, identical, if driven within each amp's limits...…………...

Let's go with that ROFLMAO.

 

[Bob]

by George I think you've got it
(apologies to Eliza Doolittle the character not the singer
apologies to Higgins the character not the Magnum PI caretaker/MI6 agent
apologies to GBS, Pygmalion, and the 105th anniversary):

all music on all equipment at max volume sounds alike:

in hundreds of years (maybe a few months) everyone will celebrate this epiphany

especially here on AK, home to audio aficionados (aa - lower case) and
am seriously waiting

1. with cash loosely held in both hands to offer you CASH for any TOTL gear
with equivalent donation to AK (no offers accepted from non-deniers)
2. for the next epiphany (you know the flash of light, the instant intuition, the glory,...)
3. please list meds, therapies, diagnoses, screening made to date.

YOWZA, Hallelujah - made my year

 

[Pio1980]

It wasn't supposed to sound like the Levinson in production, it was TFM to sound like the Carver reference amp, I believe I already stated this. I'm quite familiar with the event.

The "challenge" test cdx was what I was referring to, I knew the production amps were as you state built to an in-house reference standard.

 

[mad shadows]

Silly question - to event contemplate that physically different objekt sound the same.

 

[Alobar]

I guess I find myself somewhere in the middle on this subject, and also I think that one's idea of identical is different from another's.

While I love the sound of my big Kenwood power amp,and I do think it sounds superior to others i have around the house, I'm not sure I would be able to guarantee 100% every time correct ID between the Kenwood and my $300 Yamaha A-S301 integrateds. Subtle is the keyword here, but there in my mind anyway.

But with my biamped system it would be very difficult or impossible to set up some sort of switching scheme in order to have such a blind test.

 

[just dave]

And to think I could have saved a couple mil getting one of these
View attachment 1332697

As it sounds exactly like one of these lol.
View attachment 1332698
View attachment 1332699

https://newatlas.com/pivetta-opera-only/29824/

Star Trek amps don't count as they are from the 23rd century.

 

[Grenadeslio]

Star Trek amps don't count as they are from the 23rd century.

Actually this amp is for sale if you have the money, around 2.2mil I believe, might be a different model. All are handmade so different, 160,000 watts for one model is pretty impressive.

A few screen shots from the site. Might need to beef up the house slab a bit lol.

 

[GChief]

160,000 watts

Damn I thought we where doing good making 240,000 with the first Sonar I worked on.

 

[E-Stat]

Most people get this part wrong. In the challenge, the Carver amp was made to sound like a Mark Levinson amplifier.

Actually, it was a Conrad-Johnson Premier Four.

What was considered "state-of-the-art" in 1984 (even with acknowledged compromises as compared with others) has decidedly changed across the decades. I'm pretty sure that I would have preferred the Threshold Stasis 3 I was using at that time to drive my Acoustats.

 

[Grenadeslio]

Actually, it was a Conrad-Johnson Premier Four.

What was "state-of-the-art" in 1984 (even with acknowledged compromises as compared with others) has decidedly changed across the decades.

Most likely correct, would have to look back at the white paper, constantly mix the two up with both using names as acronyms.

 

[E-Stat]

Most likely correct, would have to look back at the white paper, constantly mix the two up with both using names as acronyms.

Click the link I provided (that’s the blue text) where John Atkinson provides the informed answer. Click the other link to support my other observation.

 

[Grenadeslio]

Click the link I provided (that’s the blue text) where John Atkinson provides the informed answer. Click the other link to support my other observation.

I'm familiar with the above without reading it again having subscribed to the mag for decades. Really all this does is prove that even with the skills at hand no two solid state amplifiers can ever sound "exactly identical", TFM or not.

 

[E-Stat]

I'm familiar with the above without reading it again

Just observing the specific amp involved in the test.