If you look at FR graphs it doesn’t, and this is true of most good amplifiers, they have pretty much flat FR from 20-20KHz, in some cases a lot more.
However people do perceive differences, and they tend to communicate them using word that describe Frequency response. And I agree that the treble on the Liquid Spark, sounds less aggressive that many of the $100 competitors.
So either the FR graphs aren’t capturing what amps do into real headphones (they are measured into a resistor, and dynamic headphones are not resistive loads), or those differences are not captured in an FR plot at all. Or everyone is lying/confused (i’ll ignore this point)
I think a lot of it is that frequency sweeps capture a very narrow aspect of amplifier design, time domain response matters, ability to reproduce small signals while other large signals are playing matters etc.
A lot of what I think improves as you spend more on amps is treble reproduction (less grain/grit), the impact and texture of bass notes, overall timbre and staging.
mk, thanks for your perspectives. I still can’t find convincing evidence for differences, so I’ll just enjoy what I have lol.
I do tend to listen critically a lot of times. I’m confident in picking out minutae from recordings of all sorts of genres, or at least doing so using several different headphones, but I really can’t seem to actually detect anything regarding the gear itself when I try.
The evidence really shows itself when your in the market and AB’ng. That’s how I ended up with my spark as I was looking for an amp to pair with my 990 at the time which is a very sharp headphone as your probably know. A headphone like a 990 will expose pretty blatantly How harsh or smooth an amp is on the high end. That’s basically how I learned different amps can sound different from the very linear sound of the the JD’s labs atom and the very smooth colored sound of the spark. A good comparison in a slightly higher end category is how an op amp designed amp like a thx 789 sounds from something like an asgard 3
Honestly IMO for good SS amps in the “budget” range, quite honestly they sound more the same than different.
I wouldn’t stress over it if you have one, there isn’t a lot of value in “side grading”
That’s really a single aspect of the playback chain often referred to as resolution, you need to get into significantly more expensive/resolving headphones before that aspect of an amp starts to be obvious.
Staging changes a fair amount even on budget amps, THX amps for example stage very flat. But it’s not always something that stands out to inexperienced listeners.
The easiest way to “hear” the difference if you want to is listen to one chain exclusively for a few days, then swap to the other, don’t try and quantify the differences, often they’re hard to describe.
Pay attention to the overall stage, the sense of “air”, usually bass reproduction is the first thing people notice.
After a day or two decide if you want to swap back to the first option.
Not very scientific, but IME it’s the best way to determine if something is “better” for you.
In theory, in the magical land of ideal components, cables have no resistance, components don’t age and amplifiers follow voltage no matter the current.
That is (sadly) not how reality works.
Amplifiers overshoot, have delays, are limited in current (or power) capabilities, change distortion, etc.
As far as I am concerned, knowing the quirks and strengths of what you own is worth more than throwing money out the window in search of perfection. Others are free to disagree
Maybe make a thread for that. If nothing else, it looks interesting.
Voice coils (and other drivers) react completely different than resistors (and even there, wirewound, thin-film and manganin resistors are way different).
There may be some interactions between certain topologies (and tunings) and certain LCR-curves (NOT frequency response!)
If anyone knows a website of someone looking into measuring synergies, I am interested!
Depends.
With my M40x I can tell apart my three amps and audio-interface every time. With AD500x is a bit difficult to tell the interface from my cheapest amp.
My “test setup” for blind testing is me making a mess of extension cables and plugging in at random.
you should know equalizer PO is kind of trash SQ wise. Try roon’s free trial and use their EQ. Its much better IMO as it completely avoids the windows mixer and works much better with asio. Also, remember that cutting is better than boosting when setting profiles.
Honestly, I dont EQ even for headphones like LCD-X where the manufacturer litteraly recomends it, but there is a noticable SQ difference between roon EQ and equalizer APO
A comment on the Class A part. Because of the class A topology, assuming the power supply is propperly sized, they have a better time maintaining higher current limits at higher loads than other topologies. Thats why a lot of class As sound more powerful than their number sugest. Because instead of “5W @16 ohm, 3W @32 ohm, 1W @ 150 ohm, etc” they are more of “XmA @ all loads”
Class A has little do to do with the topology and more of the fact a resistor is working the entire time. When there is 0 sound coming out of a class A, the resistor is in the middle of it’s amplification. Class A/B means you have a class A amp in front doing work while 2 resistors (often inverting) split amplification for half for the top of the wave and half for the bottom. The time the resistors have off helps with efficiency.
DC couples class A just has to have power all the time resulting in power that is much more immediate. Supposedly. @MazeFrame may have more to comment as his studies are more recent than mine on the subject.
Power is Voltage times Current.
Writing Current or Power at a given Impedance comes out to the same thing.
Class A is a topology.
To help Class A’s miserable efficiency, they often run relatively high voltages. Combine that with low capacitance (= faster response) to get more “slam”.
The PSU argument:
While linear PSUs might have huge output caps, Switch Mode PSUs have those huge caps on the input side. Linear Regulators due to their working principles are slow. So a load transient will drag down the linear PSUs caps which will then have to recover slowly, see Bottom of Page 2 for example.
A modern SMPS will do that in roughly a quarter the time, Bottom of Page 6.
Time scales on both are 10uS per division.
(There is a reason computers use switching regulators instead of linear for CPU and GPU power regulation)
I mispoke, I mean power requirements for class A has little do with the power supply (meant in terms of raw numbers). As you mentioned with the specifics of switching power supplies versus linear power supplies.
They can have very different sound signatures. I didn’t notice much difference with cheaper amps, but it becomes much more obvious as you climb the tree.
I now have a:
Solid State amp
Hybrid (both tube and solid state) amp.
Tube amp
And the three have Very different sound signatures.
You really don’t know until you start experimenting. Buying used softens the blow as you move up or sideways.
It can be, but gebrraly speaking jts much less noticable outside of a few scenarios. In the lower end stuff burr brown dacs tend to be a bit smoother but also a bit more natural while cheap ess dacs can have an issue with “glare” (esentialy very forward highs). The high end is a whole different ballgame with players like chord and holo playing with staging. Tbh though, just dont worry too much about your dac if you get one that’s generally well liked. It has the lease impact on a system vs headphones and amp
ah okay, what are your thoughts on the Mayflower ARC Mk1 . if you have any , my set up is mayflower arc to my darkvoive to hd6xx I feel like the Mayflower ARC is holding it back for some reason as i cant tell due to lack of experience
TBH, even if the mayflower is holding your system back, imo, you are better off spending money on cans. they scale much faster with price than dacs or even amps do.
Headphones, DAC, amp is my personal preference on how to build a chain I’m looking for. Granted it seems I find a deal on something and build around that.
I generally like headphones.com’s review methodology, combining measurements and/or proper testing with subjectivism as well. I kinda get it now - the differences probably won’t mean much in the grand scheme of things but it can be reliably heard in blind tests for some people.
I generally don’t trust people simply saying ones sounds different than the other without doing a proper AB-blind comparison to remove potential sight bias. But with blind testing, I can’t really argue against results people give. After all, it seems Schiit themselves blind test their own products too. As for the actual subjective opinion on the sound… well it’s subjective so I’m sure there is a variation in opinion.
Still, none of this changes my own personal limits of perception. I can’t really hear the differences consciously haha.
I will say respectively that a lot the amps like the Atom, Heresy, Mayflower, etc… should all sound VERY close to one another as the designs are pretty similar. When doing op amp designs for the budget minded markets, there isn’t really a lot of variance. I hate the excuse but I’ve seen it myself, the more you spend the more the difference show up.
I can’t even hear the difference between different headphones, between with amp/dac combo and direct plugging into the pc sometimes. That’s why I always hesitate about purchasing amp/dacs. I guess my ears are not that sensitive. I’m gonna stick with my Fulla for a while because I think what I will gain from new amps are very limited.
Maybe I should plug my brain to an amp to boost it.
