In article , JustMe
wrote:


I will, once again, explain that the Alchemist amp DOES sound better and
that ANY statement of preference in sound-quality is, by its very
nature, a personal one. I can no more tell you what to prefer than you
can tell me and it would be arrogant and misguided to assume otherwise.

[snip]

If something is engineered to sound a certain way, then there is nothing
wrong with it when it performs as engineered. If it functions true to
its design then there is nothing "wrong" with the Kraken.

I have become curious about this as I had a vague recollection of having
seen reviews of the Kraken. Had a look though old mags, etc, this morning.
(Side-benefit was it meant I avoided having to start writing an exam paper.
;- )

Can't find a review in HFN although I thought one was published there.
However have found one in HFW. As usual, the results this gives are a bit
patchy and may well be misleading or erronious. However I also looked at
some reviews of other Alchemist amps, and the reports on the Kraken in the
review look consistent with the other comments.

What caught my eye was two factors.

One is that the distortion tends to rise as the power approaches the rated
output. The way this is described in the review makes me wonder if the
designer was deliberately aiming at 'soft' clipping behaviour.

The second was that, although measured to deliver 50W into 8 Ohm loads,
this fell to 36W into 4 Ohm loads. Again, it was mentioned that the
distortion tended to rise as this level was approached. This implies that
the available current may also 'soft' clip at a value that may come into
play with speakers that don't maintain an impedance of about 8 Ohms across
the band. (In such cases the rated power may be misleading as significantly
higher powers may be available but with higher levels of distortion than
used to rate the max available power. Alas this is one of the many things
the HFW review fails to specify.)

The distortion levels quoted were ranging up to 0.5 percent as the limiting
powers were approached. This may perhaps be high enough to be audible, but
I'd suspect not severe enough to be objectionable, or may well simply go
unnoticed as 'distortion'. However hard to say for sure without a lot more
info than the magazine gives, so can only speculate about this. Would also
depend, I suspect, a lot on the user and circumstances of use...

The result may perhaps be that the amp soft clips a bit, and this may alter
the sound - particularly with high power transients or extended bass. The
review comments on the bass being affected in ways that might be consistent
with this, and the reviewer indicates that some users may well like the
results.

I would have liked to see values for the o/p impedance, but the review does
not give this, or various other bits of info.

Slainte,

Jim

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