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In Reply to: RE: What if accuracy is boring? posted by morricab on December 2, 2024 at 05:12:04:
Is a distorting amplifier preferable because of or in spite of the imperfections? Does a 'blameless' amplifier sound non-preferable because it destroys some unidentified musical quintessence or because we prefer a little flavor? These are rhetorical questions but worth asking, IMO. I think most audiophiles think that what they prefer is somehow better and expect it to be objectively better in some manner too. See my post on Critics about Tom Martin of TAS and his implicit assumption that digital does something bad because it doesn't sound as good as vinyl where the simplest explanation would be that vinyl is not 'better' but preferable. Maybe the only way to 'prove' anything with regard to amplifier distortion is the create music samples with known distortion spectra and see if there is any preference or non-preference. Keith Howard took a look at this, see link, and his conclusion was that any added distortion pattern does not enhance the sound. There is an app available to add predetermined distortion spectra to music samples so anyone can repeat this for themselves. KH was looking for added euphony but not that low order distortion can/does mask high order distortion so that might be worth investigating for anyone curious - which is probably only me and I'd prefer to listen to an LP, frankly.https://distortaudio.org/
What the question doesn't need is another 'review' of the people who think distortion 'takes something away from the sound' without any idea how. If an amplifier is designed to use a decent amount of feedback it will not work sensibly open loop. When I am made Secretary of Audio Design in the new administration some designers will be sent back to school. They won't be obliged to use feedback but they will be obliged to understand it.
Feedback suppresses non-linearity - the dominant distortions will be corrected most, which are usually low order. If the inherent level of high order harmonics is already low then feedback could increase them. Baxandall's case was a mathematical non-real example. The question, then, is are those high harmonics now not masked by the low orders and becoming objectionable or is just lowering the low harmonics making the sound less nice?
In summary, I do agree that people should listen to what they prefer (though I am of the opinion that a lot of preferences would not hold up to unsighted listening tests but that is for a different post:))
Edits: 12/05/24
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- The question is rhetorical and simple, a long non-answer is unnecessary - 13th Duke of Wymbourne 16:31:02 12/05/24 (0)
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