A few years back I bought an Audio Black Shadow 845 that had all sorts of issues. I spend thousands and it still has issues. Last week while testing an idea on behind the wall wires, I reinserted my Black Shadows. I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I actually much prefer the Black Shadow over the Dartzeel for a number of reasons. BUT. I am highly aware the Dartzeel stomps the Black Shadow into the dirt when it comes to noise levels. I am very aware there are odd order harmonics with the Black Shadow that are limiting how much volume I can push the system with. The use of stranded behind the wall wire as well as a Torus isolation transformer have knocked down some noise, and smoothed over some levels of heard harshness. The harsh is still there, but to a much lesser extent and really only presents itself when the volume is turned up past pleasant listening levels.
Contrast that to my interactions with the Dartzeel. The Dartzeel is very quiet. I believe it has very low distortions levels. Compare .05% to the 1.5% or more in the Audion. I have no idea if the harmonics in either are even/odd or where they lay and at what levels. But it is obvious the Dartzeel is much less overall. The Atmasphere Class D Monoblocks are even lower. What this means is I am able to turn my volume up much higher with the Dartzeel/Atmasphere amps. As in a lot higher. And I don't feel any at the moment fatigue. But am I impacting my hearing now. A low level odd order harmonic is sensed as irritating keeping you from turning up the overall volume. I am probably no where near levels that are damaging to my hearing. A very clean amp with low distortions that allows me to really crank the music loud on the other hand is hitting levels of output that are knows to damage hearing. I have left a few audiophile homes who use very clean SS amps and I am noise sensitive for days after. The same happened last weekend when I had friends over for a listen. I got the Dartzeel too worked up and for about 3 days after I did not play music and about a week before I did not feel sensitized to it.
So, are we chasing this goal of super low level distortion levels, only to find we are damaging the one sense that is critical for enjoying audio playback.
Contrast that to my interactions with the Dartzeel. The Dartzeel is very quiet. I believe it has very low distortions levels. Compare .05% to the 1.5% or more in the Audion. I have no idea if the harmonics in either are even/odd or where they lay and at what levels. But it is obvious the Dartzeel is much less overall. The Atmasphere Class D Monoblocks are even lower. What this means is I am able to turn my volume up much higher with the Dartzeel/Atmasphere amps. As in a lot higher. And I don't feel any at the moment fatigue. But am I impacting my hearing now. A low level odd order harmonic is sensed as irritating keeping you from turning up the overall volume. I am probably no where near levels that are damaging to my hearing. A very clean amp with low distortions that allows me to really crank the music loud on the other hand is hitting levels of output that are knows to damage hearing. I have left a few audiophile homes who use very clean SS amps and I am noise sensitive for days after. The same happened last weekend when I had friends over for a listen. I got the Dartzeel too worked up and for about 3 days after I did not play music and about a week before I did not feel sensitized to it.
So, are we chasing this goal of super low level distortion levels, only to find we are damaging the one sense that is critical for enjoying audio playback.