Impressions across the current Aspen amp range

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hybride

Re: Impressions across the current Aspen amp range
« Reply #40 on: 27 Jan 2011, 10:58 pm »
I believe that, in the end, a straight wire with gain should be satisfying. I analyzed for many years what is causing 'musicality' in sound reproduction. Went from 300B to class D, from TDA1543NOS to Sabre32dac, from turntable to sd-card streaming, From Redbook to SACD, from mini monitors to 4way speaker systems. What lessons did i learn? In every standard commercial set of equipment, whatever the price, an average of only 12 bits will reach your ears. The source information which we need for the 'foot tapping experience' is lost in the chain. To compensate we get lost in the 'hifi fiction'; up- and oversampling, dithering, resampling, tubes, harmonics, noise, cables etc. And there are more variables like acoustic environment, mechanical resonances of speakers and mass inertia of drivers. That's what is making it all so damn difficult to choose components like 'the right amp' It's pretty personal. Last years my goal was to get more of the lost bits to my ears. The further i get in this journey, the more i realized that a straight approach, 'a wire with gain' is the way to get there.           

LM

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  • Lyn
Re: Impressions across the current Aspen amp range
« Reply #41 on: 28 Jan 2011, 01:18 am »
Quote
Are we still in the middle somewhere?

Sigh! I guess I was always likely to open a bit of a can of worms with my own 'left-right' terminology as I spelled out my thoughts when I opened this thread as I wasn't attempting to define an absolute measurement spectrum, just to give some words to show how I heard the slightly different characteristics of the various Aspen models.  :D  I hope discussions on 'definitions' don't side track the observations at any stage.  :wink:

Just to re-emphasise if I didn't make it clear at the start, I personally believe all of Hugh's amps are firmly in the 'middle' of the spectrum of great amp sonics and accuracy  :thumb: in that they are neither too warm or wooly (my left) or sharp or thin or steely (my right) as some out there are.  :no_hear: In fact if 'my' scale was to be 100 units wide, my mindset in my original post would have been that perhaps one, or at the most two, units separating the Maya from the Soraya and with the latest spec Soraya, only one and yes, the original LifeForce may have been a few more units to the right but I would have had it any day over some of the perfectly measuring screechers I've heard in the past.  OK I'm exaggerating wildly - or perhaps not. :duh:
« Last Edit: 28 Jan 2011, 04:27 am by LM »

rabbitz

Re: Aspen Amps etc.
« Reply #42 on: 16 Mar 2011, 07:34 am »
Strangely, (or perhaps not so strange), the one amp I will never part with is my AKSA55N+. It is truly lovely.

Me too! So maybe I'm not so crazy after all.

BTW, good detailed post Ginger.