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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

gmercer
speakermaster
738 posts
 
Simple circuits of tube amps invite point to point wiring, but for a solid state amp you would have wiring everywhere along with interference caused by all the wiring going everywhere, the routing would become too complex for sure.
gmercer OP
193 posts
 
@speakermaster thank you. That answers what I was curious about.
ieales's avatar
ieales
1,201 posts
 
Simple circuits of tube amps invite point to point wiring, but for a solid state amp you would have wiring everywhere along with interference caused by all the wiring going everywhere, the routing would become too complex for sure.
Incorrect. A transistor has 3 pins, a tube typically has 6 to 9. A tube amp invites P2P wiring as the mechanics of an exposed tube in a socket on a chassis provide a layout.

SS products could be similarly designed with sockets on a backplane, but costs would be prohibitive. P2P is impractical for many of todays electronics with panel gewgaws and remote control.

PWB, first described in 1903, and transistors became popular about the same time in the 1960’s.
danvignau's avatar
danvignau
935 posts
 
Point to point wiring is absolutely necessary for designers who cannot design a decent circuit board.  I was lucky.  My designer was a NASA rocket scientist who helped with both the moon landing (Apollo 5) and Voyager missions.  His circuit boards did not have "Thin" Crap.  Too many individual wires means too much noise.
ieales's avatar
ieales
1,201 posts
 
Too many individual wires means too much noise.
Utter nonsense.

Bad layout, routing and impedance understanding cause devices to have low SNR, not the interconnect method.
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