Ihearmusic Posted September 23, 2018 Share Posted September 23, 2018 7 minutes ago, davewantsmoore said: This may or may not be true, as it is a complicated thing (I think it is generally not true, but whatever) .... engineering sensibilities say that "adding a flavour" in such a way (with a non-linear gain stage) is a very poor plan. Very politician like start..... Engineers don't go out to add flavour. But since they can not run a new design in every possible combination with all the equipment available to connect to.......... surely there will be different outcomes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davewantsmoore Posted September 23, 2018 Share Posted September 23, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, Ihearmusic said: Engineers don't go out to add flavour. Says who? What a silly statement. Customer says "please add flavour", and a solution is engineered. So of course engineers may want to add a flavour. 1 hour ago, Ihearmusic said: Very politician like start..... It's normally needed. If I were to say it's been a pretty common result that when you test people (even ones who say they like distortion) that you find that people don't like distortion in general. You might show examples of people who for whatever reason do prefer it. And of course there'd be nothing wrong with that. If someone does really like distortion (even though most don't) then that's a perfectly reasonable preference. I'm just saying to accomodate that preference, you can do a lot better than haphazardly applying the distortion through a non-linear amplifier. My very strong belief is that when audiophiles say they "like a bit of colour" (aka they "like a bit of distortion" ... and that "low distortion sounds too 'clinical'.... or whatever/similar) .... that they are really talking about something else which is causing the difference. Edited September 23, 2018 by davewantsmoore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ihearmusic Posted September 23, 2018 Share Posted September 23, 2018 4 hours ago, davewantsmoore said: Customer says "please add flavour", and a solution is engineered. So of course engineers may want to add a flavour. Silly me, and I always thought that an amplifier design brief would include the aim to reproduce and amplify the original material presented in its most neutral form. As close to the original as possible. The flavor I thought would come with the mixing of different components from different manufactures to the listeners taste!? It must be hard to design flavor into a product that as soon it leaves the showroom floors gets mixed in with god knows what. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davewantsmoore Posted September 23, 2018 Share Posted September 23, 2018 1 hour ago, Ihearmusic said: Silly me, and I always thought that an amplifier design brief would include the aim to reproduce and amplify the original material presented in its most neutral form. As close to the original as possible. Exactly. If one was asked to "add distortion of a certain flavour" to a system. You could do that by using a component (eg a preamplifier) which has some inherent distortion..... but there are much better ways to do it. It would be best to leave the amplifier(s) as attempting to function with as little distortion as practical .... and add the "flavour" in another way (eg. with a box which is designed to insert distortion, eg. an equaliser, or some type of effects box, or a DSP). Said another way. If you are trying to "engineer distortion" .... then don't leave it to "chance". Use amplifiers and components which perform as well as possible (ie. with as low distortion as practical), and then add the distortion purposefully. In a way which can be controlled and changed, and tailored to exactly what the listener desires. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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