This has been discussed many times before and bound to bring in many amps busters.
Why Do so many amps sound different in the bass area?
Okay allow me to qualify that, we are talking about quality amps, not so called multichannel wonder boxes and B grade consumer boat anchors.
I recall a post recently where it was reiterated the quality of the power supply capacitors was the key.
Oh really?
Maybe for some amps, but not for others.....switch mode amps and other new classes, and perhaps even the tried and proven class A room heaters.
Go here for a full explanation on power supply upgrades.
The job of filter capacitors is also well explained here.
http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/solid-state.html
They act like a water reservoir tank, you pour water in and take water out, to a point the bigger the tank the better the capacity to cope with demand.
Its also interesting to determine if the current demanded by the amplifier is constant or dynamic. As a rule, a constant load is a much tougher job for the filter capacitors because of the higher AC ripple current demanded.
However, the impact of capacitors dynamic performance is far less pronounced on an amplifier that draws a constant load, where the supply rails remain relatively stable and the design has good PSSR and CMRR.
With this in mind I recently did some comparisons with a conventional A/B amplifier, a class A SE amplifier and a 3rd class A amplifier having a true balanced output stage where the speaker output comes directly from the power transistors, not via the power supply.
The subjective appraisal for the conventional A/B amplifier provided tight punchy deep bass, however there was obvious bloom and colouration in the upper bass and midrange, it had large power reserves but lacked subtle nuances on bass instruments. (Damping greater than 1000 @ 20 hertz and output greater than 300 watts).
The class A SE amplifier exhibited an enlightened ambience in the bass and a feeling of space, individual instruments were clearly identified. There was a slight warmth in the tonality and good control of drum notes. (Damping factor 80, power output 100 watts).
The full balanced class A amplifier showed impressive dynamic contrasts, 3 dimensional ambience and tantalising excitement of micro dynamics. The bass tonality was neutral and delineation of instruments outstanding. (Damping factor 30, power output 100 watts).
Obviously I expect most will take this with a grain of salt and perhaps this belongs on another forum (although I would be preaching to the choir.) It would also appear damping factor is not the sole criteria for good bass performance.
But I think its fun to challenge your equipment and your ears occasionally.
By the way, the joke of this experiment was the reference speakers which were set up in near field operation. They are the much loved and unfortunately much bashed L100 Century.
The moral of the story is except nothing as normal, blame the operator first and your speakers last.
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