RawDepth said:
Should I consider it to be fairly good as long as Distortion is less than .02% and S/N ratio is greater than 100dB?
Don't these two specs pretty much tell the whole story about how clean an amp will sound?
At what power is that distortion figure measured? Full, half? Is that full-range, or a limited band? Same for the other spec. Those are so vague nothing meaningful can be said about the amp in question.
One problem with specs is that you have to read them fully and often convert them so they all have the same reference point. It's very easy to have the same spec mean very different things when looking at marketing-driven specs.
Two 500W amps, one rated at 1kHz and the other rated for that power full range, can both claim to be 500W, but their performance could be very different.
Specs in ads are usually selected engineering numbers used by marketing people to make their products look good. Very few companies print full specs, as they are usually less than flattering.
You gotta listen. I look at specs to see if a product is going to meet certain minimum requirements. I don't make any judgements until I have it in my hands. Then I can hear it, see how it handles what I throw at it, find it's limits and strengths.
An amp is going to be like any other component in your monitor chain. You will have to learn it's sound, how it affects the music. The differences will be less noticeable than changing speakers, but changing amps certainly makes a difference.
