Are future improvements in Amp/PreAmps slowing to a crawl?

Eric

I built the low TIM Leach amp from Audio magazine, and followed through with the next year of 100+ circuit changes in the following issues. I also owned Leach’s L S R&D amps from his company.

He did not believe in matching transistors, and his amps were "average" sounding for their time!

His article just re-hashed what was known in amplifier circuits at the time. No breakthroughs IMO.

TIM was just "frequency overload" in fancy talk.

I never said the amps were exceptional, but that the paper put together the formula.

I am unaware of any other document before his paper that put together all the components that would become known as the SS formula. If there are, please share.

High distortion SS amps were no longer passable as hi-fi.

I have no idea what "frequency overload" means. Explain?

@dlcockrum

Yeah, you are not the only one! Apparently Carver did not have any PC's to do Monte Carlo simulations. It took him years to figure out the problems, AFAIK, related to switching voltages far too fast in the power supply, causing dead shorts.

Best,

E

@inna 

Why would a respected tube amp designer want to play with something very different?

To see what is possible.

Nelson Pass sold a kit very briefly that employed an output transistor known as a Static Induction Transistor or SIT. This was and so far is the only transistor type ever made that had the linearity of triodes and even had a soft clipping characteristic- so it should be possible using them to make a solid state amp that sounds exactly like a tube amp. Sony made them back in the 1970s for their Vfet amps. Nelson made a kit using them and you can bet that I wanted to know what that sounded like so I bought a kit.

Why would you not? is more the question!

Love your innovative attitude Ralph!