Old Amps that can still Kick Butt

What @atmasphere said, +1.         I would add: there have also been major improvements in the materials and manufacturing of rectifiers, resistors and capacitors, since the late Eighties.

A lot of those old amps had (now obsolete) low noise high bandwidth Toshiba and Motorola transistors which are not easily matched with today's offering. The unavailability of those parts is the main reason why amp manufacturers refuse to work on thirty year old equipment. So an argument can be made that some of the old stuff were better than today's, but not as a general statement.

I'm still running a Creek 4140 integrated in my system. I thought it would be easy to get something that sounds better given that it only cost $550 in 1989, but that has not been the case. I think the reason it sounds good from the perspective of timing and ability to convey tonal color is its simple circuit design. I've been lucky not to need a lot of power and I've found that more powerful amplifiers often sound off in timing and veiled to me. Recent amplifiers I've listened to in my system are:

• PS Audio Stellar Strata integrated (class D): SQ feels artificial. Timing sounds off.
• Creek Evo 50: Sounds slow. Timing is off.
• Pathos Classic One: sound quality as well as the quality of the sound seems very close to the Creek. It's a bit smoother, but this difference was rendered moot by getting a new, smoother sounding DAC

There have been some amps that have sounded good to me. I think the common factor for most of what sounds good to me is simple circuit design. I think this simplicity helps in maintaining correct timing in music as well as ability to sound transparent and convey tonal color.

• The Sugden A21SE sounded quite good indeed. With its Class A design, I think it also has a simple circuit design.

• I've also got high hopes for a Belles Aria Integrated to sound better than my Creek. I was going to get one to try out, but a friend beat me to it. So I get to try it out in my system for free! The Belles also has a similar design philosophy of simplicity that seems to work well for my listening preferences.

I've been playing  with some vintage Sansui professional series ( BA 2000, CA 2000) pre-power for a year or so as a hobby, and i have to say after a re-cap,etc they are surprisingly nice sounding. Better then the Schiit Aegir in bass, midrange detail and decay only place the new stuff is maybe better is high end extension but that's debatable. so I'd say if you find a quality item form the vintage period it potentially can be stellar if updated-recapped as necessary etc. The key to most vintage stuff I've come across is the fact its aging and if not addressed they are most likely not close to original spec as parts drift with age. once in spec much of the stuff can be quite good. specially the tube gear if it had good transformers to start with. of course your mileage may very and its obviously dependent on what vintage item your looking at, as like today not all gear is worth looking at. 

J Peter Moncrieff?
That guy?

+1 for Ralph and feedback