Drop 101: What Is An Amp?

Mar 28, 2023

markinbhamIt's more "Linear Power Supply" vs "Switching Power Supply." Switching power supplies are like those common wall-warts, while linear power supplies are less power efficient (they always consume the same amount of power regardless of how much is used to amplify) but are always immediately "ready" to respond, generally bass has better impact and the amp is always performing optimally.

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MikeSattler

Jun 12, 2018

"They’re also touchier and more sensitive, because they produce an analog signal, and the resulting sound—generally warm, sweet, and natural—is a favorite of music purists."
This sentence doesn't really make sense, every amplifier produces an analog signal whether it's tube/solid state. Why would that make a tube amp touchier and more sensitive?
In my experience, tube amps are touchier and more sensitive because of RF interference with the tubes as well as the fact that most tubes need at least 100 hrs of burn-in to sound their best. Not to mention it takes 10-30 min for tubes to stabilize once you flip the power switch.

Mar 28, 2023

MikeSattlerIn my experience (tho you can also look up the Schiit Ragnarok as an example), solid state amps also have a warm up period to perform optimally. I can't speak to why the OP said tubes produce an analog signal... I agree amps operate in the analog domain. I suppose you could argue tubes present a "more analog" sound when a DAC is clipping a signal or under sampling: instead of producing a sharp square wave, the transients for clipping are a little more rounded off and less harsh sounding. OF course, this depends on the tube, and some will clip in just the same way as solid state amps XD.

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coolerking

164

Jun 5, 2018

There are two issue folks. 1/ Audio enjoyment is a subjective endeavor. Period. In this world we strive to obtain objective information, desperately. The only real objective information is empirical, meaning, what are other peoples experience with a given product. 2. Secondly, there is a lot of what I call digititus out there. We have, through huge marketing efforts in all consumer endeavors, been lead to believe if something is named digital, it is one of two things, period - on or off, high or low, works or does not work. This leads people to black and white thinking, and/or zero sum gain thinking. It amazes me. No signals or products are purely digital, period. I see people constantly labeling products and technologies as thus, where as in their respective field they would never do this. Can you imagine someone in criminology after 20+ years experience saying that all criminals are either evil or not, period, there is no in between. Or a teacher saying kids are either dumb or smart, period. Hardware is analog. It is exists in the physical world, and thus, it has many aspects to it. Just because it is difficult to articulate this does not make it true.
So my advice is to try to see what people have to say about the sound of the product, in unfortunately qualitative language. With a degree in Electronic Engineering and going on 30+ years in many different facets of the hardware industry, the more I know, the more I realize I do not know. It is damn near impossible to explain to someone with no experience why a better "digital" cable makes a difference. Just as it is someone in banking to explain what money really is.
Read reviews and comments. Stay away from advice from folks who say things like "you cannot tell the difference between a MP3 signal with X resolution from one with Y." Come on, how the hell do they know? What they can offer is that they cannot hear the difference. If you like music then take the jump, and see for yourself.
Good Luck and Enjoy - the more people joining this hobby, the more we all benefit.

tinamou62

Nov 25, 2018

coolerkingI love this comment. I think too often we forget the point of the hobby - it's not to get the absolute purest, least distorted, perfect signal. It's just to enjoy the music. And that is so subjective.

Mar 28, 2023

coolerkingThe priests of bit perfect declare this post as HERESY! haha, but honestly I agree with you, we learn a bit and fill in the rest with assumptions, and then it's all too easy to believe we know it all. Absolutely USB cables carry analog pulses of electricity that are interpreted as digital signals, hopefully as close to a perfect square wave as possible, but theory and practicality are different and subject to imperfections and interference.

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living fossil

Jun 2, 2018

The balanced amp with the Massdrop logo on the top. A NEW PRODUCT ?

IvanDaTerrible

Apr 26, 2021

living fossilSince it says massdrop and that is the old name, now Drop that would imply older unit.

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Mar 28, 2023

living fossilThe path of production is littered with the graveyard of "what might have been."

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wohengvanow

Jul 4, 2016

The market demands - today people are willing to drop BIG bucks based on other people's stories on what you should expect to hear and forming big expectations (buy first, audition, then buy again). The suppliers are just jumping onto the demand train to cash in. Hopefully this gets reinvested for some real innovation.
Stax, HD800, headamps, etc used to cost a 'fortune' back in 2006. Now they are "average priced" compared to the Other top of line. People seem very ready to drop 2 to 3 grand on a totl headphone, then another 2 grand on a portable DAC and amp.
There's a lot of variety out there and a lot of schnake oil.
To answer your question is nothing has changed other than the current flavor of the month. It's still just solid state, tubes, transistors, transformers, class a b ab d t, planars, dynamics, hybrids of the above. The wheel hasn't been reinvented yet. The playing field is just a lot bigger.
Here's some designs from the past that I'm waiting to see recycled as "breakthrough new technology". This is exciting times.
Tube + class d hybrid otl... wait it's already here
Akg340 - hybrid planar dynamic headphones
Black Diamond HA - transformer coupled solid state amp