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Stereophile - MF Supercharger article-add 550W/ch.

Have you read this article in september issue of Stereophile?
It says that Supercharger pumps up your system to 550W/ch. and leaves "no sonic signature" - "Like a chameleon".

It works like this - simply connect Supercharger between your power (or integrated) amp and speakers.You only need a new set of very short speaker cables.You get 550 W/ch.,better dynamics and bass, and everything else is the same.
It is claimed that it only increases dynamics, and doesn't change "the sound" of your original amplifier.

Without questioning Stereophile's knowledge (it is my favorite magazine) i just find it hard to believe this.
My question - has anyone actually tried adding supercharger to the SET based system,2-20 Watts of primary amp. power?
And can any owner of such SET system say it didn't damage (a bit at least) the magic and "the sound" of SET tubes?
I am aware that in article Scott 299B(18 W/ch.) amp was connected with Supercharger.
I want to hear from owners of SET based systems who have tried this.Or from other people who have some opinion on this subject.I just find this hard to believe.
audiobb

Showing 4 responses by dbphd

Ag insider logo xs@2x
dbphd
1,616 posts
 
Could it be that the solid state amp is relatively transparent and thus able to pass along the coloration of the tube amps so beloved by the analog folks?

db
Ag insider logo xs@2x
dbphd
1,616 posts
 
Atmasphere,

My previous post was intended mainly to pull the chain of the anlog folks, but it does have some rationale.

My doctorate was in psychoacoustics, my post doc in binauaral processing, but how tubes mimic human hearing escapes me. I think of tubes as introducing a distortion that many find pleasant, a rosey sonic picture if you will. As a lab rat (grad student), one of my jobs was to test and match pairs of 6L6 and KT88 tubes for the many Mac MC 60 amps in the lab. A big box of tubes and a tube tester was not my idea of fun.

db
Ag insider logo xs@2x
dbphd
1,616 posts
 
I haven't published in nor even looked at JASA for several decades, so I am far from current. But evolution of the human auditory system occurs very slowly, over thousands of years. You have to ask yourslef why human hearing, a system evolved for avoidance of danger and communication, would be sensitive to high-order harmonics. What might the teleological explanation be for developing such sensitivity be? For example, we can explain interaural sensitivity to timing and level in the lower frequency range as providing localization cues that could be important for survival. But what value might high-order harmonics add to our lives?

db
Ag insider logo xs@2x
dbphd
1,616 posts
 
Atmasphere,

A good empiricist needs first assure an absence of artifacts in such a demonstration. The signal generator and transducer can be sources of spurious acoustics, especially with square waves. A fast scope can monitor a generator, but I don't know how to monitor a transducer to assure absence of artifacts.

db
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