The best example of this concept is to consider tube and solid state amplifier characteristics. For example, a typical tube amplifier often has less apparent bass response than a transistor amp. Our understanding is that tube amplifiers actually give a larger, more diffused image in the bass relative to the image they give in the midrange and treble. This diffused bass image is why there is a perceived reduction in the bass response. What appears to the ear as a difference in frequency response is actually a difference in imaging.

Similarly, a typical solid state amplifier produces what sounds like elevated treble response compared to a tube amp. We feel solid state amplifiers generally give a condensed image, with the image becoming even more condensed as the frequency increases. This condensed treble image yields a "hot" high end.

We have found phase distortions in both types of amplifiers which modulate the imaging and therefore the tonality. These image modulations do not affect tonality directly, but rather the relative image sizes through the frequency range that affects tonality. By isolating these distortion mechanisms we have been able to virtually eliminate them, resulting in not only a tonally correct sound but more than that ... an audio system that images like no other.

Getting tonality and imaging right are perhaps the biggest improvements from our technology, but Michael Yee Audio systems also have a degree of that crucially important life and space that's so often missing from even very expensive equipment. In a good recording there are myriad subtle timing components that need to reach you ears intact, and our electronics allow it to happen.