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

[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.

[MyLittleViking]

Originally Posted by Mr. Widget

I'd suggest that by the '80s the lower priced pieces were all pretty piss poor as they are today. Certainly most vintage gear needs work, but if you find a good tech, you will find that the above average receivers from the '70s like the Marantz, Denon, Pioneer, etc. do sound better than the new affordable gear of today... I am talking two-channel to two channel. As for convenience, the remotes are hard to give up, but if you are after sound quality alone, a refurbished vintage piece is hard to beat.


Widget

Basically all I was trying to say.

[MyLittleViking]

Originally Posted by Mr. Widget

The speakers and the room will make more of a difference than an amp, preamp, source, or yes, even cables.

That said, listening to my speakers in my room with a variety of amps including vintage SS designs from the '70s, more modern Haflers, vintage tube and solid state McIntosh amps, and even some modern single ended tube designs... they each have a sound of their own. Some sound decidedly better, some rather poor, and others simply different.

I have been uniformly disappointed by the mainstream more affordable offerings from everyone in the receiver/integrated amp arena. The all analog contemporary 2 channel designs without a DSP are certainly the best of the bunch, but they still sound hard, veiled, and rather unpleasant compared to the better vintage and contemporary designs.


Widget

My thoughts exactly!