Some amplifiers, like mine, namely my 22 year old vintage Yamaha CR220 Natural Sound receiver seems to have "off days" when it sounds either tired or distorted at higher volumes when playing CD's on my NAD C520 CD player. On other occasions, especially late at night, it will sound "normal" with full and rich sounding music with only a trace of distortion. I never noticed this phenomenon until I recently replaced my interconnects and speaker cable (after 21 years with radio shack RCA's and 16 gauge zipcord) with Audioquest Viper 's and Audioquest CV-4/Type4+. I love the clear and full sound achieved with the cable upgrades but the unpredictable amplifier can really be a nuisance. Even a quality Wireworld Electrifier power strip to plug the receiver into, with an Audioquest AC-15 power cord attached did nothing at all to improve upon the sound. Anyone else have this type of fair weather amplifier?
Amplifiers either work or they don't work. But
If an amplifier is working correctly, you know it, since it either works, or it doesn't work. So i am told.
Is it possible or likely for a preamp, however, to play at a diminished level, do to some small malfunction within the preamp say over time, and therefore go unnoticed by the listener, who may not be able to pick up on the gradual dimunition of the music ?
Is it possible or likely for a preamp, however, to play at a diminished level, do to some small malfunction within the preamp say over time, and therefore go unnoticed by the listener, who may not be able to pick up on the gradual dimunition of the music ?