Amp improvement since 1994?

Csontos,

Of course,there is no exact answer. But there are many very high quality amps out there from many reputable companies that leverage various technical advances available these days not available 20 years ago. The best general example of progress in amp technology in ercent years is Class D amps that are up to the task of truly bringing out the best in smaller full range less efficient speakers, that years ago required large heavy monster amps that most would not have wanted to deal with, even if they could afford them. Nowadays, there is no reason one cannot find an amp capable of driving most any speaker to their maximum potential with just a modest investment. 250w/ch to 8 ohms or more is often NOT overkill for best results.

You can finds amps today that are much better than amps 20 plus years old. SS amps today have far less grain and can sound every bit as good as a great modern tube amp. Parts quality has greatly improved, so if an amp is built with these SOTA parts, it will indeed sound much better.

We have learned and applied a great deal with damping and shielding inside an amp. Power supplies are better and on and on.

Just takes some effort to find one that meets your sonic preferences.

Mitch2, I know of another Audiogon member who swore by a highly modified McCormack amplifier.....until he heard a McIntosh tube amp from the 50's. He wound up having the McIntosh re-conditioned, and sold the McCormack. He was stunned to find out how good a 55+ year old tube amp could sound.

I'm just saying that many folks will swear that newer technology is always better, we are constantly improving.....then how come my old tube amp and vinyl beat digital with newer amp?

Is newer technology different? Absolutely! Better? Maybe to some.

Since 1994, I would point to;

1. an increase in differentially balanced designs, where two identical halves are bridged for significantly higher power and lower noise in balanced mode,
2. the use of input transformers for isolation, balanced conversion and other reasons,
3. better parts, power supplies and isolation as has been pointed out above, and
4. most recently the maturation of really good sounding Class D amps like the Ncore NC1200 based amps which, in my system, sounded great.

Regarding improvements since 1994, I believe my "new" amp was manufactured in 1996 and introduced in Jan '97. It is a McCormack DNA-2 LAE that I commissioned Steve to rebuild using everything he has learned about upgrading those amps from circuit changes to the best available parts. The result IMO sounds outstanding and rivals or betters any amp I have owned or heard in my system.

To head off confusion as to why John's reply came before my post, before he posted I made a small change and the formatting on the preview ended up weird so I copied the text, deleted the post and reposted with the revision, but by then John's reply post was already up.

I am not surprised that resurrecting a classic tube amp would have a satisfactory result. Better parts and circuit/wiring layout to reduce noise are two improvements of newer amps over older amps but if the design is strong a rebuild with newer parts can provide significant improvements. In my case, I specifically did not want tubes. If the McCormack amp had not turned out as good as it did, I probably would have been looking at a pair of Ncores.