Andrew Quint - The Audiophile Ecosystem (Editorial)

[sandyk]

6 hours ago, botrytis said:

My 2 main amps (a Pioneer M-22 and my Kenwood L-07M monoblocks) were built in the latter 70's. I did have them restored before I started using them. They will last a long time.

 

 Even restoring amplifiers built in the late 70s will not make them sound as good as can be achieved 40 years later .

Electronics design hasn't stood still in the meantime, and many components have also been vastly improved since then

[sandyk]

36 minutes ago, Rt66indierock said:

 

The designer of my Nikko NA-550 would disagree with you.  I met him at RMAF 2017. And my NAD 3020 still  is the amp to beat with my Heresy speakers.

 

 There are quite a few types of Distortion that have been discovered since then by researchers such as Douglas Self and Bob Cordell, with methods shown to reduce or eliminate them. 

 

The specifications of the Nikko NA-550 are very poor by today's standards.

 

Specifications.

Power output: 50 watts per channel into 8Ω (stereo). Frequency response: 10Hz to 50kHz. Total harmonic distortion: 0.08%. Damping factor: 60.

 

[sandyk]

Quote

There are good and bad designs both new and old. Just because it is an older design, do not think it is not up to snuff. 

 

I am not saying that a much older Class A design is not up to snuff, just that they can normally be further audibly improved using new techniques and especially more recent semiconductor devices.

My own DIY 15W/Ch. Class A amplifier for example, has <.0006% distortion and almost certainly quite a bit  higher S/N ratio than designs from the 70s and 80s.

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, 4est said:

This is more difficult than you make it out to seem. The circuit will always trump parts and the wrong part changes the circuit. If you can discern the difference between .006% and .0006% distortion, you have me beat.

4est

 The Nikko NA-550 mentioned previously has a quoted distortion of .08% which many would  notice compared with

.006 %.  Hearing the difference between .006% and .0006% is an entirely different matter, although amplifiers with similar distortion figures below even .006% can often sound quite different.

For example, many older Class A designs used output devices with an Ft of 4MHZ or less.

Most modern amplifiers these days use O/P devices of 30 to 50MHZ. The later devices usually sound better, and often have considerably higher HFE as well which reduces the loading on the previous stage.

They also have less Beta Droop into  4 ohm (or less) loads.

Even different types of input capacitor can make an amplifier sound quite audibly different.