Yes, and Dolby Digital/DTS decoding, THX processing (for those that have it), switching and much, much more. The processing section definitely does change the sound, as it is supposed to. I'm not trying to say that we don't need these things--we certainly doOriginally Posted by curtis
My simple point is this: a good, well-engineered amplifier (or amplifier section) does absolutely nothing except amplify the signal. Consequently, two good amplifiers (both of which do absolutely nothing except amplify the signal) are going to "sound" the same at equal volumes unless one of them is pushed to the point of clipping.
On to something equally fundamental and perhaps more interesting. Check out this quote from Audioholics speaker guru Patrick Hart:
"In truth, it is very difficult to know for sure how a speaker by itself really sounds unless you can listen to it in an almost perfectly neutral room. Any listening situation short of that perfectly neutral room and you have no idea how much of what you’re hearing is room and how much is the speaker."
Taken from Loudspeakers: When Is Good Enough, Enough? (Part 2)
Wow! Do you guys think the same thing is true concerning the sound of all components? Does that mean we have to make our listening rooms as close to perfectly neutral as possible and do all of our comparison shopping at home?