Well stated Charles.
Can a Amp be "timeless" and compete with todays amps?
I’ve been into hi resolution audio for 20+ years, well longer than that but acquired high quality gear about that time. I veered off into other interests for 15 years but still had my system sitting idle in it’s dedicated room. I became interested in it again 6 months ago and began to update it. I still have my Rega Planar 25 table and a Dragon phono stage. I retained my CEC TL1 transport, but replaced my DAC with a Dinafrips Venus II, I also have the Hermes DDC which I feed my CEC into as well as my Cambridge Streamer. I sold my Genesis V speakers because they were having an issue with the left channel bass and since they were out of business I had no way to fix them, it was over my head. I found someone that wanted them and was willing to repair them himself. (he is very happy with them) I replaced them with some Goldenear Triton 1.r’s which I love. So here is the nostalgia part. I still have my VAC Cla 1 Mk II pre amp and my VAC Renaissance 70/70 Mk II amp. I feel they still hold up well sonically, so my thoughts are to send them both to VAC for the Mk III updates this fall of 2022, which includes replacing any necessary parts and "voicing" them back to new as intended when they were first made. I really believe these pieces are worthy of the restoration, are newer pieces today really going to make much headway? I cannot afford to replace these items with "like" items as I am retired and the discretionary income isn’t there anymore. I just feel like they are still really good and offer a very high quality sound. I mean 8- 300 B tubes can’t be all that bad can they? I’ve voiced the pre amp with with Telefunken 12AX7’s and I have a small stash of them. Tube sound is still great right?
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i think so also... At the end acoustic/psycho-acoustic experience in a room decide what will be our choices, because nevermind the theoretical level of improvement, no ears and no room are exactly the same ... The law of hearing are the same but the ears differ...The needs of people differ too... And if technoloy improve always with time, there is a plateau of maturity where new technological improvement rival other different technological advantages improvement with different trade-off...
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The significant sort of modern advance is Class D amplification. The better designs are pretty much indistinguishable, to me anyway, from other high end solid state designs. But, where one does not need a whole lot of power, my preference is for low-powered tube amps. I find that the better low-powered tube amps (roughly 40 watts or less) to be more engaging and lively sounding at lower volume levels than solid state amps (you have to crank the volume up just a bit more with solid state to feel the music come alive). I also think that such tube amps have a more natural sounding attack to the note (less of an artificial sounding "edge"). The amps I own include a parallel single-ended 2a3 amp (Audio Note Kageki), and a pushpull 349 amp built in Italy by Aldo D'Urso (sort of a replica of a Western Electric 133 amp using original Western Electric transformers and other vintage parts). The parallel 2a3 amp puts out something like 6.5 watts, the 349 amp something around 5.5 watts. My personal preference is for low-powered triode tubes (e.g., 2a3, 45) in either single-ended operation or pushpull, and certain pentode/tetrode tubes (KT-66, 6L6, 350B, 349) in pushpull operation. I tend to dislike high powered tube amps that use multiple higher output tube types--the sound becomes hard and has a "glare" that I find a bit annoying. I really like certain OTL amps as well. They have an "immediacy" and sound extremely exciting and dynamic compared to most other amp types. Some are operationally fussy (not the Atmasphere amps), and are a bit scary to me because I have speakers that are close to irreplaceable. One of the best amps I've ever heard is a custom-made OTL amp. As for solid state amps, the ones I've heard that I particularly liked have also been low-powered, specifically the First Watt J-2 (borrowed from a friend for two weeks) and their SIT amp (heard in a friend's system). These have a slight bit of an artificial edge to the attack of a note, but, they don't sound as dead and unengaging as most other solid state amps. I also like some Ayre amps because they sound relatively relaxed without sounding dead; if you need more power, they are a good choice. |
Technically (as in: labeled for least potential in confusion), feed forward, yes. |
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