I know a builder that does something pretty unique. He primarily builds amps, preamps and linestages, but, he also builds DACs. All of his builds employ point-to-point wiring (he builds tube gear), but for the DAC, a circuit board is used for the digital/conversion part of the unit. But, the circuit board is not actually printed, even if it looks to be a printed board on casual inspection. The board is a sheet of bakelite with a sheet of copper bonded to the bakelite. The circuit traces are made by CNC machining out of the copper sheet to leave the traces.
Point to Point vs Circuit Board
I just read this about point to point wiring:
First, there’s the music’s signal. You spend a lot of money on interconnects. So why have the signal go right from the RCA jacks or speaker terminals into circuit boards with copper traces so thin you can hardly see them? What’s high-end about that?
I've now heard about point to point wiring in the case of tube amp companies (Jadis, PrimaLuna) and my question is does point to point wiring exist for solid state amps? When I look at images inside amps online all solid state amps seem to use circuit boards. Is there such thing as a point to point transistor amp or must they necessarily have circuit boards? If so, which companies?
Thanks
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There are benefits to p2p wiring AND circuit boards. The original Phase Linear amps were p2p. In fact, when the 300 series 2 amps were built, many of them had additional wires added to certain points because the pcb traces were too thin (high resistance) to carry the necessary current and that caused failures. Their low cost solution, add some 18awg wire. Circuit boards can be designed to carry the necessary current using thicker copper clad and doubling the traces on multilayer pcb's. Nowadays the best manufactures take everything into consideration to maintain low capacitance, inductance and resistance. That's how the best remain the best. |
Manufacturers today take everything into consideration - like who? Have you opened up one and modified any? Most components are built to a price point. There are very few doing P2P wiring because of the cost. I make a hybrid power amp that is P2P with bi-polar transistors. So far I have not heard a product that uses a circuit that out performs P2P but hey I am always listening. Happy Listening. |
This is rubbish point to point (and dangerous), (circuit boards would be better) (very expensive unit and highly regarded by some🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️ ) No two would sound the same, and you all know it. https://ibb.co/yPhb5PK This is proper point to point (better than circuit boards) https://ibb.co/nwff5zJ https://ibb.co/fSVdnT2 Cheers George |
I think this is not cut and dried. I feel that you can have poor point to point wiring and great circuit boards and vice versa. In point to point, what is the quality of the wire? What kind of solder is used? How well has the soldering been done? In circuit boards, what is the quality of the boards, the design, the composition of the traces? I think an example of a good circuit board amp would be a Raven Audio Avian Series tube amp. Good point to point wiring: PrimaLuna? |
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