Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Jackson Browne Available Now
During the recording of The Pretender, a newly invented piece of electronics was used called the Aphex Aural Exciter. It harmonically “richened” the sound in interesting and, most would say, pleasing ways.
It was designed to have a euphonic effect, and it succeeded in that aim, beguiling its listeners for a while, especially those at the lo- and mid-fi level, the obvious if unspoken target market these days (although the thought of admitting such a thing would surely cause the sky to fall) for the Heavy Vinyl reissue.
The Aphex was clearly creating distortions, but they were the kinds of distortions that many folks of the audiophile persuasion seemed to like. Which is the very definition of euphonic colorations.
The poster boy for euphonic colorations is our friend here, the famous Mac 30, an amp that came on the market in 1954 and one that still has adherents to this day, some of them quite famous. I had a pair and learned some lessons — as I did with every piece of equipment I owned — in the time I spent listening to them.