Capacitor-less amps

A DC-coupled amp is really a DC power supply with analog command input, and a high slew rate. In fact, many years ago a power supply manufacturer demonstrated his product at a trade show by playing music through it. Subsequently, some audio amp manufacturers took this approach.

I have a couple of old Kenwood L07M amps that are direct coupled, and they do sound really good dispite their age (or should I say "vintage").

My SS amp has Output transformers and it sounds swell. Caps? Who knows and who cares? Listen for the music, not how you get there. "I have 6 large for a new amp, what, oh what, should I buy?" Gee whiz Wally, listen to a NAD first, perhaps blindly, Then commit if you Must. Just my .02, I could be wrong.

Look carefully at the design of all amps that claim "no caps in the signal path" and you will find lurking in the shadows the power supply caps. They are in the "signal path". The only designs that I am aware of where this is not the case are topologies like the parafeed and ultrapath and like designs which use a high quality film type to get around the caps in the power supply.

John_tracy...Get real! If power supply capacitors were in the signal path the amp's HF rolloff would be about 0.0001 Hz!

Actually, if the power supply caps were in the signal path (in series), you would have a highpass filter so it would be an LF rolloff. There would be no bass.

There is some confusion: "in the signal path" means in series. Decoupling capacitors are in the signal path. Parallel caps are fine and necessary - cleans up the signal which everyone likes.