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What makes an amp sound more direct ?

In our hifi journey we have probably all heard amps with different topologies and implementation. Most of these amps would have an implementation which is a combination of one of these:

1. Single Ended
2. Push-pull
3. Balanced
4. Differentially Balanced
5. Class A, A/B, D
6. High/Low Damping factor
7. Zero Negative Feedback (global & local)
8. Low/Medium/High Negative feedback
9. 2/3/4/multiple gain stages

There will be more such items that can be added to the list. My curiosity arises from the fact that some amplifiers (or even preamplifiers) sound much more direct than others. The ones that does this trick generally seems to do the "they are here" trick very well. While the components which sound relatively indirect cast a sound scape which gives the perspective of "we are there".

Just from my observation, single ended and zero feedback designs sound much more direct than balanced designs especially ones with high negative feedback. Is this a coincidence or is there a valid reason behind this ? 
pani

Showing 3 responses by mapman

mapman's avatar
mapman
21,838 posts
 
Atmasphere,

I heard your setup with the large Classic Audio horn loaded speakers and United Home Audio in the larger ballroom at Capital Audiofest a few weeks back. A RTR tape of the Beatles White Album was playing.

It was a treat in that larger dedicated room in particular. The sound was very distinctive from most anything else there. It did have a certain warmer and seemingly more direct aspect to it than any other setup I heard that day. By direct I mean with that particular setup the location of the speakers in the room seemed somewhat apparent from listening.

In that large room, I think that was a good thing resulting in a large more focused primary soundstage in the middle of the room which was more realistic. A wall to wall holographic soundstage detached from the speakers in a room that large would have been a nice trick but not sounded realistic or lifelike.

There are pictures of the setup on the United Home Audio website if anyone is interested.

FWIW.


mapman's avatar
mapman
21,838 posts
 
I'm not sure its possible to associate "directness" inherently with any electronics.   Speakers and room acoustics would seem to be the main factors.   Some speakers are more directional than others ie more sound firing directly at you versus other directions.   Room acoustics will determine how much reflected sound reach your ears compared to direct.

It may be that many zero feedback and SET amps tend to sound this way in that they tend to work best with higher efficiency speakers many with horns or waveguides that in fact direct more sound towards you, which in genral means the system is more efficient in taht more of the sound produced reaches your ears directly rather than via reduced volume reflections that travel further and are hence not as loud as the direct sound.
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,838 posts
 
From my experience and reports I read from others, it does seem that use of negative feedback typically results in a more laid back presentation than otherwise. That would seem to infer a different tonality between the two in general. So avoiding that is probably a good move in the interest of achieving a more "direct" sound than otherwise.

I owned one near zero feedback amp in recent years as an experiment and yes it tended to be more direct and forward than most others I have owned.
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