Interesting....

[Randy Savage 5,000+ posts]

This experiment was done and wrote by Richard Clark...many of you know who he is....

as i stated in the tube amp thread i spent the last several nights doing some tests on the "sound" of amps when overdriven or "clipped"--------seems this has become the "best excuse" to surface on why one amp may be sonically superior to another-----i have always excluded overloading the amps in my challenge since the issue started out as a search for what specs really contrubuted to sound quality-------and since it seemed silly to listen to amps producing double digit distortion in a quest for sound quality this requirement made perfect sense to me-----in my first round of tests I compared a JL, a Jensen, and a high quality home/studio tube amp (4 El-34's per channel in a classic push pull output) ------i considered the JL as representative of the best car audio has to offer----the Jensen as a brand that most "sophisticated" audiophiles look down on and the tube amp as a good example of high quality tube design----meaning it is a real honest to goodness tube amp unlike the market driven hybrid nonsense that is sold in the car audio market---------the car amps were powered by a motor driven GM alternator wired to a yellow top battery------the home amp was of course plugged into the wall outlet-------i tested the amps at the following levels-------driven right to the edge of clipping (0 dB overdrive)------6 dB overdrive------12 dB overdrive------18 dB overdrive------and finally 24 dB overdrive-------the amps were connected to a 8 speaker (4 per channel) JL array wired to 4 ohms so the power could be safely absorbed without damaging the speakers------the signal was tapped directly off the speaker lines with a lab grade bridging coil and fed into a digital workstation------the signals were then "normalized" for the same loudness since the amps all had different power outputs-------i then edited the tracks into a single easy to compare CD-------here is my first impression-------the JL and the Jensen sound the same at all drive levels--------ie their distortion is equally bad------the tube amp sounds a little worse at the higher over drive levels-------i don't hear any speacial sonic character from any of the amps and sure can't hear any "tube magic" that is so touted by tube fanatics-------no soft clipping or pleasing harmonics------just nasty distortion-------i was going to do a few more amps in the test but after this i believe it is about as futile as trying to find survivors in the WTC------at this point i believe i am willing to modify my amp challenge to allow any ampunt of clipping as long as the amps have power ratings (actual not advertised) within 10% of each other----this would have to exclude tube amps as they seem to sound much worse and it is obvious-----------anyone want to listen to the CD send me and e-mail and i will send it to you as long as you agree to send it on to someone else that is interested in also hearing the results in a timely manner----when i send it to you you will be given the name and address of the next person to send it to--------the music is copyrighted and i don't want to make lots of copies...........RC

Click to read more...

 

[mattj 5,000+ posts]

and to think, from what ive read and seen tube amps were supperior. i guess i was wrong in my readings.

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[B&R Innovations]

That test is kinda flakey

JL audio isnt the supperior of the car audio amp world by any means

If he wanted to compare it to a tube amp...put it on a .00000000000000000001 thd Mcintosh. (well almost)

Jenson isn't as horiabaly crapy as people make thme out to be, defintaly a few rungs above pyramid

 

[Randy Savage 5,000+ posts]

Originally posted by B&R Innovations That test is kinda flakey

 

JL audio isnt the supperior of the car audio amp world by any means

If he wanted to compare it to a tube amp...put it on a .00000000000000000001 thd Mcintosh. (well almost)

 

 

Jenson isn't as horiabaly crapy as people make thme out to be, defintaly a few rungs above pyramid

But still, JL and Jensen are thought to be no where near each other....and he showed that they sound the same...

 

[B&R Innovations]

I wanna actually see more specks

hehe running them into a normalizer could be a slight problem too...

SUre they are worlds apart, but he says that JL's are on top

 

[Randy Savage 5,000+ posts]

Originally posted by B&R Innovations I wanna actually see more specks

 

hehe running them into a normalizer could be a slight problem too...

 

SUre they are worlds apart, but he says that JL's are on top

Maybe to the average consumer, JL's are the best. Only to people like us who are obsessed with car audio do we know better.

 

[B&R Innovations]

I guess

I wanna see what this normalizer was...

Anything thats going to clip of powere is going to create distorion and raise resistance...

 

[RangerMan Premium Member]

Clark is a genious....

 

[Randy Savage 5,000+ posts]

Originally posted by RangerMan Clark is a genious....

Oh man...someone on Termpro was ripping on him...I'll go find the post...

 

[Randy Savage 5,000+ posts]

Dammnit!! One of the mods there deleted it, those **** mods!!!

 

[B&R Innovations]

YEah he definatly is

but still I don't like his test...

I mean it proves that JL's and JEnsins wil perform the same under unrealistic conditions

 

[B&R Innovations]

Mods deleting people from ripping on clark...cough...abuse of power

 

[RangerMan Premium Member]

Why would you rip Clark?

 

[Randy Savage 5,000+ posts]

Originally posted by B&R Innovations Mods deleting people from ripping on clark...cough...abuse of power

It wasn't even ripping on him that bad...I don't remember much, but the guy was saying how all Clark does is run his mouth, and he was like what have you done? You got destroyed at comps, you were running like 20-30 drivers, different kinds, and you lost. And your giant MTX sub was a big failure. Something to that extent.

 

[B&R Innovations]

OH thats harsh

He's probably sulking