So, do all amplifiers sound the same?
I think I cut and pasted some bits wrong at the start so you may have a EDITED deja vu monent when reading it.. 
Understand BigColz, not a problem.
Note, I said well engineered. Now, there are plenty of examples of so called 'high end' products which suffer from all sorts of ailments because of bad design. Just to give one example, there are many more, Micromegas last amplifier with unshielded streaming module. Interference all over the place and it was apparently easily audible.
Well engineered doesn't necesseraly has to be expensive. Using boutique parts does not guarantee good measurements or sound. Proper design, circuit layout etc does go a long way towards it. There are many expensive amplifiers that have high noise floors, hum, high output impedance etc etc.
regards
I think I cut and pasted some bits wrong at the start so you may have a EDITED deja vu monent when reading it..
Understand BigColz, not a problem.
Note, I said well engineered. Now, there are plenty of examples of so called 'high end' products which suffer from all sorts of ailments because of bad design. Just to give one example, there are many more, Micromegas last amplifier with unshielded streaming module. Interference all over the place and it was apparently easily audible.
Well engineered doesn't necesseraly has to be expensive. Using boutique parts does not guarantee good measurements or sound. Proper design, circuit layout etc does go a long way towards it. There are many expensive amplifiers that have high noise floors, hum, high output impedance etc etc.
regards
Yeah fair point.. I certainly don't think more money = better.. I love my budget Cambridge Audio system and I just 'downgraded' my amp in my sig. Picking it up Sat, Can't wait 
Looking forward to just enjoying the music! Merry Christmas 
... and to you 
regards
No they don't! 
All depends on whether it's methane or hydrogen 
Valve amps sound like has-beans.
Valve amps sound like has-beans.
Like me then....wait long enough and we will be back as the latest trend.....though it can be a long wait! 
Blimey is this thread still banging on, when the indisputable literal answer to the question is quite simply 'no'...
Does that mean they're all broken, then ?
If the requirement is simply to amplify, without distortion, then shouldn't they all sound the same ?
JC
Yes. I think if it can drive the rated ohms of your speakers, and if distortion is below .1%, every amp sounds the same. This endless and expensive search for costly high-end amps is all manufacturers' hype (IMHO).
If you only ever play test tones of a certain frequency at a certain volume through certain speakers then yes you will be able to find lots of amplifiers with less than 0.1% THD.
If you're like me and play a variety of music at a variety of volumes then you will not be able to find any amplifiers that have less than 0.1% distortion at all volumes, frequencies and impedances.
Every amplifier produces more than 1% THD+N as the power goes below 1/10th to 1 milliwatt. Many amplifiers will be producing much more than 10% THD+N at the microwatt power level. Every amplifier produces more than 10% THD+N when it goes into clipping.
Having said all that, the differences between my amplifiers are not as great as the differences between my sources and my speakers in my systems.
No, all amps don't sound the same, or at least, in my experience, there's a difference between some I've used when nothing else has changed in the setup.
Ah ... thats ok then ...
regards
Being entirely pedantic. All amps sound different. Even 2 amps of the same model do. No amp is a "perfect" signal amplifier and some are less perfect than others.
Whether we humans can hear the differences between similar measuring amps is a different prospect.
In a perect world amps "should" all sound the same or in fact, shouldn't "sound" like anything other than a louder version of the signal they are boosting, as, as has been stated their function is to increase the amplitude of a signal without distortion. But it isn't a perfect world and all amps distort. Some distort less than others and some distort in different ways. There are positive ABX tests for amplifiers which shows they are different...differently "not perfect".
Possibly you "could" say all amps are "broken", but if so, then so are all sources and all speakers as nothing perfectly reproduces the original sound.
"No man can ever step into the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man" - HeracIitus
All Texel sheep look and sound the same to me.....and so do Bottle Nosed Dolphins!
No amps do not sound the same, even with tone controls.
The whole point of an amp is to amplify a signal, simple enough, but to do its job the amp must be able to control the speakers being used. Some amps do this better than others, even in the same price bracket. Even at 'fixed' levels the way an amp controls the driver in the speaker of choice will differ giving differnt harmonics hence a different sound.
An amp fully in control of its speakers will produce what the sound engineer intended to be heard, We all know that different parts of the driver produces different frequencies right?, hence an amp capable of getting a drive unit to produce the full frequency range presented to it will sound different to a less sophisticated amp. ambience, reverb, transients and all those hifi things.
Tone controls cannot make a silk purse out of a pigs ear. If a source provides a super hi res signal, but an amps cheap innards degrades this signal, and its control over the drive units in your speakers is lacking, you will never get it to sound like a well sorted amp. It'll never sound the same.
You can fiddle till your fiddle drops off, it won't, some amps are just better than others at amplifying.
Ok I get ur piont.. But at the same time if u dnt have good enough speakers to show what the amp is doin, then that would be a problem as well. It all boils dwn to matching... Sometimes a lean & bright sounding amp can make a boomy & dull speaker just sound right.
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I think I cut and pasted some bits wrong at the start so you may have a EDITED deja vu monent when reading it..
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