How can a $200 amp from the 70's be better than a $2000 amp built today?

[MikeBrewster77]

But no room on earth is going to make bad set of speakers sound good.
I don't care how good the room is a Bo$e speaker will still sound bad!

Very true, yet I seem to recall hearing stories that it wasn't only the auditioning space that was designed in Bose systems' favour, but that they also had a substantial amount of additional equalization equipment (not the stock units sold with the 901's mind you) hidden "behind the curtain" that significantly helped to enhance their sound within that controlled environment.

Thus the audition in your own listening environment and with your own upstream components credo! I've been fortunate to work with folks who had such guarantees (30 days+ in your own home to decide) and would strongly suggest anyone auditioning new gear attempting their hardest to find the same type of arrangement!

Unfortunately that arrangement hasn't applied to me re: newer JBL offerings, since I've yet to find a local dealer - but that's not going to be any surprise to anyone here. Luckily, the newer JBL's I've purchased unheard have MORE than rewarded my reluctance to buy before auditioning.

[Ducatista47]

We still have a local audio store here that lets you take stuff home and try it out - before you buy it. They understand synergy and rooms.

I know how lucky we are. If they close I guess I will be satisfied with what I have. But I will miss dealing with two good friends.

Clark

[1audiohack]

From the "Audio and Acoustic DNA-Do You Know Your Audio and Acoustic Ancestors?" by Don Davis in the Fourth Edition of Handbook Fo Sound Engineers, 2008.

By the beginning of WWII, Lincoln Walsh had designed what is still today considered the lowest distortion power amplifier using all triode 2A3s. Solid state devices, even today, have yet to match the perfection of amplifiers such as Lincoln Walsh's Brook with its all triode2A3's or Marantz's EL34 all triode amplifier. The Walsh amplifiers with the linearity and harmonic structure achieved by these seminal tube amplifiers, are still being constructed by devotees of fidelity who also know how to design reasonable efficiency loudspeakers.

It's funny how some things were got so right so long ago. I would love to hear/have one of these, can anyone shed more light on this than this paragraph lends?

Thanks,
Barry.

[Titanium Dome]

The language confounds me.

still today considered the lowest distortion power amplifier using all triode 2A3s

1. Considered by whom?
2. Measured how and against what?
3. Because of the use of triode 2A3s it was the lowest distortion power amplifier ever made bar none?
3. Or it was/is the lowest distortion power amp that has triode 2A3s in it?

Not clear to me, and that's just the first sentence of the quote. So I'll echo Barry's query: can anyone shed some light on this?

[jcrobso]

When I was in school the distortion meter there was only good/accurate to 1% THD, today's meters can measure .001% THD. How would those old amps measure up on today test gear?
Tube amps distortion % increases as the power increases, SS amps the % of distortion decreases as the power goes up. All of this assumes that we are not going into clipping.
The plate transfer curve of a tube is NOT linear by any means. The most linear mode for a tube is a pentode in the ultra linear mode, push-pull.
A triode in push pull mode is next, single ended class A is good, BUT the power output is very low, because of the small linear part of the plate transfer curve.
With SS amps it is very easy to get .01% THD.