Posted by thetubeguy1954 [ 216.230.40.218 ] on December 10, 2004 at 12:22:15:
In Reply to: Re: Some reasons why SETs sound different posted by akhilesh on December 10, 2004 at 10:18:19:
Hi Akhilesh, you're 100% correct it would be impossible to have this discussion in the Asylum, I tried and was insulted and ridiculed for my beliefs. I want you to know I have no experience with DIY or building amps. I cannot tell you why SET's do what they do. However, I've been a music lover/audiophile for 36 years now. Also I play some acoustic guitar, so I have a pretty good ear. When you said "So, maybe you (thetubeguy1954) are saying that somehow a SET undoes the effects of the mike-encoded signal, and makes it sound live." YES Akhilesh, I think that expresses exactly what I believe.
Now I'll grant you that not every person hears exactly the same amount of information, do to a variety of factors. However how we hear is the same. We all know when a Sax is live as opposed to recorded. I believe that somehow Mic's and 99.9% of solid state equipment adds or removes something to the signal that alters the original acoustic event. Then on a psychoacoustical level, when it played back our brain tells us "This is NOT real, it's a recording." I believe 2 of the major factors that contribute to this are: Greatly reduced dynamics as opposed a live event and two different sets of reflections existing at the same time. For example: When we play back music on any system (even an SET based system) we hear reflections of sound waves as they reflect off the floor, ceiling, walls, etc of the room the music was recorded in. Now when we play that recording in our homes we add to those reflections the reflections that occur in our room as the sound reflects off the floor, ceiling, walls, etc of our room. Hence again on a psychoacoustical level our brains cry out, this is NOT real!
Lastly when you mention "Bob Carver's Sunfire amps actually did a pretty simple thing, his "Current" output speaker terminals simply had a 1 ohm resistor in series, to reduce damping factor. In his ads, he stated that the reduced damping factor accounted for 90% of the tube sound. I am not sure how he reached that conclusion." Akhilesh, to that I can only say that I know for a fact that his Sunfire amp doesn't sound like my SET does. I also know that it took him a hell of a lot more components and time then just adding a 1 ohm resistor in series to make his amp sound like the tube amps when he accepted the original challenge. I think it takes a lot to make a solid state amp sound like a $5K or $10K SET does, heck even $2K SET's don't sound like the $5K and more expensive SET's do, do they?
Please talking with you.
Tom Scata (thetubeguy1954)