What are the two most different sounding amplifiers?

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Alec

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Remember it says identify an amp, not tell one from the other.

In any case, he will no doubt (looking at the rest of the wording of the challenge) argue should you be successful, so I'd invite him to observe if I were you.
 

shafesk

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A Cyrus vs a Cayin.....solid state vs tube....AR vi60 and Cayin a-55t.don't get the challenge really, most listeners can identify their own amps from others even in simultaneous switching after a minute or so.....if they offer me a plane ticket I'd win it for sure 8)
 

Overdose

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shafesk said:
A Cyrus vs a Cayin.....solid state vs tube....AR vi60 and Cayin a-55t.don't get the challenge really, most listeners can identify their own amps from others even in simultaneous switching after a minute or so.....if they offer me a plane ticket I'd win it for sure 8)

So much confidence, just like many others. Still no winners though. :?

Or people even trying in fact.
 

steve_1979

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shafesk said:
A Cyrus vs a Cayin.....solid state vs tube....AR vi60 and Cayin a-55t.

Thanks you (and everyone else) for your suggestions. :)

shafesk said:
don't get the challenge really, most listeners can identify their own amps from others even in simultaneous switching after a minute or so.....if they offer me a plane ticket I'd win it for sure 8)

If you can pass the challenge there's a £10,000 pair of speakers up for grabs. Stick them on eBay and use the money to buy a plane ticket. TBH I'm not sure it'll be all that easy though. At the moment I just want to put the theory to the test to see if it can actually be done.

Have I heard differences between amplifiers? Yes but only very small ones.

Will it still be possible to hear these differences with easy to drive speakers like the Harbeths? I don't know. This is one of the things that needs to be checked before I spend any money.

Are there any amplifiers that really have a 'night and day' difference when level matched and not clipping. Again I don't know. This is something else that needs to be looked at carefully before I spend any money.
 

hoopsontoast

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Flea powered SET and 1000w+ PA amp :)

Both outputing 1w 'should' sound the same but somehow I doubt it. The SET output impedance should be an obvious trait.
 

shafesk

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steve_1979 said:
shafesk said:
A Cyrus vs a Cayin.....solid state vs tube....AR vi60 and Cayin a-55t.

Thanks you (and everyone else) for your suggestions. :)

shafesk said:
don't get the challenge really, most listeners can identify their own amps from others even in simultaneous switching after a minute or so.....if they offer me a plane ticket I'd win it for sure 8)

If you can pass the challenge there's a £10,000 pair of speakers up for grabs. Stick them on eBay and use the money to buy a plane ticket. TBH I'm not sure it'll be all that easy though. At the moment I just want to put the theory to the test to see if it can actually be done.

Have I heard differences between amplifiers? Yes but only very small ones.

Will it still be possible to hear these differences with easy to drive speakers like the Harbeths? I don't know. This is one of the things that needs to be checked before I spend any money.

Are there any amplifiers that really have a 'night and day' difference when level matched and not clipping. Again I don't know. This is something else that needs to be looked at carefully before I spend any money.
I think it gets more difficult to identify amplifiers if the speakers are efficient. The added bass weight you get from getting a beast of an amp really shrinks down with efficient speakers as the speakers have more power than they need from most amps. I've heard both my Cayin and the Audio Research through the Harbeth BBC monitors (the huge ones, I can't recall the model number) and a Dynaudio DM2/7 the same day. It turns out that the more powerful AR amp added greater bass weight to the Dyns but didn't change much for the Harbeths. To notice changes in the Harbeths I had to look elsewhere, mainly the midrange and treble. The Cayin softened things up, it seemed like a classier act. The Audio Research sounded big and brash (like all American things if you will ;). There may be another explanation, it might be because I knew the Dyns so well that I noticed the changes in amplification more than the Harbeths. I'd recommend if you are serious about it I think you should get to know the Harbeths, it makes it easier to understand the changes.
 

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