Sampling of Audio Gear

[Smokey]

Thanks guys for good discussion. I try to summarize instead of individual responses.

After reading many of your long responses and links, I came away feeling that to some of you guys, sound quality came first before anything else. Even if specification are not up to par. And IMO that is a wrong approach.

I look at specifications such as Power, Dynamic Headroom, THD, frequency response and noise figures as foundation to a good amp. Just like building a house where one need a good foundation before anything else is considered. And if one don’t have a good foundation, I think you know what will happen to the house.

There are probably alot of “good sounding” amp that don’t measure up to mentioned specifications, but one have to ask themslef..”Does this amp color the sound or is it transparent?” And if an amp does not measure up to the specifications, then the answer would be that sound is colored.

And the worst culprit to color sound are Tubes because of distortion. Some might argue that Tubes [harmonic] distortion is pleasant to ear, but that is beside the point. The fact are that tubes color the sound and that is bad-even if sound is good.

When cd came out, people ASSUMED it would be better. eventually when sacd and dvda came along, it was much closer to that. still the best vinyl playback sounds better than the best digital but the gap is miniscule now.

I still can't believe some of you guys still saying that vinyl playback is better than digital systems. Vinyl are low dynamic and high noise fornat, and no matter how expensive the system is, one still can not do better than what the source is feeding the system.

For example, I had Frank Sinatra Capital Years on vinyl and bought the remaster version on CD. On the CD where new lyrics start, one could hear Sinatra taking a breath before start singing again. But on the vinyl, the same spot where he is breathing in, there is only noise. And still some audiophiles wonder why vinyl format died.