In article , Fleetie
wrote:
All right, enough already.

I think "Jem" is getting a bit too much of a hard time here. I think
some of the things he says are worthy. And let's face it, he's right
about a few things. Like the fact that many amplifiers are just old, old
designs re-worked to look pretty, and sold for a lot of dosh.

I suspect you could say something similar about some 'new' designs as
well... :-)

So people are still making money out of very old designs, but as long as
people are willing to buy them, why not?

Seems fair enough. However I do wonder if some of the ones that get made
are sold on the basis of implying they are somehow 'newer' or 'better' than
is actually justified. I also wonder how many of the expensive valve amps
on sale these days are uncoditionally stable, and have taken into account
all the good R&D that was done in the past. Despite many of the claims
about expensive 'audiophile' components I also wonder about the actual
performance of some units.

Have a feeling that some of them are just old designs that gained a name
at the time before their limitations were identified. Then built with shiny
looking components with expensive name tags.

Actually, I wish that Hi Fi News would reprint the old amplifier
construction and design series by people like Arthur Radford. I have the
impression that at least some modern designers would benefit from reading
his work, and that of a few other designers of some years ago...

As for solid-state amps, yes, the parts price is probably way, way lower
than the sale price for most of them.

Alas, people who make such things for a living tend to want to eat. So does
the bank manager who loaned the money, the test engineers, etc... And so do
the people in the retail shop. :-)

Home design and construction is something I'd certainly recommend to those
who are willing to put in the required time and effort. However I'd assume
there are some excellent commercial designs around. The snag is to
distinguish them from gold-plated bird's nests... :-)

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html