Why do audiophiles shun feedback in amplifiers?


I've owned several very highly regarded tube amps. Some of them allowed adjustment of the amount of negative feedback. I've always found some degree of feedback improved the sound...more realistic with tighter bass, dynamics, better defined imaging, etc. I have found amps with less or no feedback sound loose and diffuse with less dynamics... I know you should design am amp with excellent open loop gain before applying feedback. I can see the use of no negative feedback for low level amplification (eg, preamp and gain stage of CDP or DAC). So why this myth perpetuated by audiophiles and even many manufacturers?
dracule1

Showing 2 responses by onemug

Charles and Frog, I like your posts.

Going up one level on the "Structural Differential" :D

When products are measured with a bleached input, then the closer the bleached output is the more "accurate" that product is. Hooray for some, not so much for me.

I think this bleaching effect of reproduced music is at least one reason why I like SET's and especially 300b's. They add some of the "correct" color back to that live moment with their, OMG, 2nd order distortion.

Not to say all distortion is good. Give me a photograph of some green grass that the camera has bleached. Now if I put on some green tinted glasses, it's going to distort the photograph but the grass looks better to me. But put on some rose colored glasses and now the grass has a brownish tint to it. I still recognize it as grass but it's not as enjoyable.

I really don't want an accurate reproduction of a bleached event. I hear many boast of their .005% distortion amps. Maybe they enjoy brownish grass. To each their own, just don't tell me what to enjoy.