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morricab, you might try considering the problem from the opposite end

You might consider that the solid state amplifier being more accurate reveals shortcomings in the speaker the less accurate tube amplifier masks. Is this possible? Can a better amplifier result in worse sound? Here's an example you might recall. I think it was PatD who first posted it on another site but I'm sure it was discussed here too. This was the experiment the Japanese professor of electrical engineering set up to demonstrate to his students that untrasonic frequencies were inaudible. He made a recording having very extended response into the ultrasonic range, set up a very wideband sound system, and could selectively filter the ultrasonic portion in and out of the composite signal. To his amazement, he found his students could readily identify the difference and knew when the ultrasonic components were present. When he went back and looked at the experiment, he realized that the ultrasonic frequencies were causing intermodulation distortion in the audible range of the tweeter. (He reconfigured the speaker to have a separate tweeter for the ultrasonic range and got the expected results.) But in this identifiable configuration, had he substituted one amplifier identical to another except the better (more accuate) one having bandwidth flat to beyond audibility and the other cut off at 20 khz, the better amplifier would have resulted in the poorer sound because it would have created the same distortion while the poorer amplifier would not have. When looking for the failure in a chain, the first and best place to look is at the weakest link, in this case the speaker, not one of the strongest links, the amplifier. This is an example of why I am very dubious about buying an amplifier on listening alone or even giving much value to that factor unless I am testing it with the very speakers and other equipment I intend to use it with. And I still want to know all of the specifications.

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