"Ian Molton" wrote in message
...
JustMe wrote:

In the "Amp swap disappointment" thread, below, Ian has said that it's
possible to accurately measure the differences between each amp and, I
would
assume, judge just what it is about one amp that might make it
preferable to
another amp, to some listeners.

Correct.

Would it therefore be possible for someone to take a "straight-line"
amp -
and I'm happy to accept whatever you judge to be a representation of the
closest example of this - and then build an add on "filter" to alter its
sound to reproduce the sound quality of the Alchemist?

yes.

Then, maybe, a dozen or so other popular amps could be measured, and
filters
built to represent each amp in turn.

You could do this.

Would I be able to hear the difference between the "straight-line" amp
with
the Alchemist filter and the Alchemist amp?

Assuming the alchemist distorts in some way (you say that it makes an
audible difference elsewhere, so I assume it does), yes.

I find this very interesting!

The consensus is that this is perfectly possible.

So, someone could build an amp which mimics the qualities of other amps,
simply by accurately measuring various aspects of the amps to be mimicked
and applying filters appropriately.

Could these filters be placed onto an IC and switched on the front panel?

That way, I can have my "straight-wire" amp and switch between "Alchemist
APD6a" mode, "Keith's Chinese valve amp" mode, "Audiolab 8000LX" mode,
"Cyrus V" mode, etc.

Nick points to a box which seems to not only reproduce the qualities of
amps, but speakers too.

How can this be? Surely a speaker's performance is influenced heavily by the
amp's ability to drive it well and by the acoustics of the environment in
which it is placed?