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Solid State Amplifier Advancements In A Decade

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What significant advancements in solid state amplifiers have occurred in the last decade?
Specifically in Class A and Class A/B.

No replies regarding Class D please.
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128x128mitch4t
mattmiller's avatar
mattmiller
1,497 posts
 

McIntosh has always been a leader in solid state amplification, and they have moved recently from the double balanced to the much more expensive quad balanced designs. I see them continuing to push the engineering forward for there solid state amps of the future. So, I am not disappointed by JC’s statements, his designs have had no personal effect on me or my system. That’s my choice indeed, It is all about the company you choose to get behind. I for one don’t like mass produced junk, or expensive products that don’t hold the test of time. John Curl and Parasound...(way overpriced IMO) . Also, Class D amps are not the future for true audiophile systems, class D amps are used in specialty type situations. For instance Multi channel home theater recievers, car audio amps, sub woofers, wireless speakers. I have never heard a full range class D amp that I could listen to loud for more than a minute! The words, Harsh, uninvolving, abrasive, hammering come to mind, really.  


Regards,


Matt M 

zd542
5,339 posts
 
"Progress.. I see what you mean, but most of the progress made today and through the last decades appears to be working around how to keep costs at bay through mass production, convenience (i.e.: size, consumption, etc.) et al. and hereby lessening the impact of such factors."

There's a difference between mass market products and high end audio components. What you are talking about here, applies mostly to lower end gear.

"If one were to read all hifi magazines through the last 30-40 years and follow the development of how the reviewers reflected progressively positive on the coming iterations of, say, Mark Levinson amps, the current versions should almost sound as good as to cure severe illnesses as a side effect. It's symptomatic to much of the hifi industry at large: reveling so locally, and navel-gazingly, as to miss the bigger picture."

Then how would you have them write the reviews? Its not like they can see the future and hold off on giving a component a rave review because future models will sound better.
bombaywalla's avatar
bombaywalla
1,958 posts
 
11-06-15: Mapman
Capacitors and or other electronic parts alone make no sound and therefore have no inherent sound quality.
c'mon Mapman, I did not expect you to make such a ludicrous statement!!! You know that electronic parts have a sonic signature (look at the myriad of capacitors available) & check out this 56-page thread if you haven't already!
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1211428524&read&keyw&zzcapacitor

And, here's a resistor thread for your reading pleasure: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1223946120&read&keyw&zzresistors
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,407 posts
 
Well they definitely do not make any sound alone but some parts definitely seem to get certain sonic attributes associated with them over time so there you go.

douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
In a decade of reviewing I have seen implementation of some good ideas; banks of smaller capacitors massed vs. a few larger ones, Power Factor Correction, and bridged integrateds like the Musical Fidelity M6500i that I reviewed for Dagogo.com (Note, such a design outputs speaker voltage and current on ALL speaker posts, so it must be handled carefully with certain types of speakers. I have not done a retrospective on these technologies, so I don't know offhand whether they have been brought back from earlier designs or newly developed. Regardless, they seem to be in vogue now.

Despite these advancements I do not think the larger, heavier and much more costly class A and A/B amps will thrive long term.
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