20 Year Old Amplifiers compared to 2017

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  20 Year Old Amplifiers compared to 2017

The now "40 YEARS OLD"
John Curl designed Mark Levinson ML-2 Monoblocks in good condition, will blow away most of today's Tube,Class-D and even most Solid State amps. 
At only!!! 25w Pure Class-A per channel into 8ohms,
It's said they will do 50w into 4ohm, 100w into 2ohm and 200w into 1ohm  

http://www.hifido.co.jp/photo/05/504/50446/c.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9uGHPSseR-w/U3aWYTrghsI/AAAAAAAB8yI/XxdvN_K7-jk/s1600/ML2a.JPG

https://img.alicdn.com/imgextra/i2/88221699/TB21ecDdFXXXXXNXXXXXXXXXXXX_!!88221699.jpg
  

Cheers George

With the exception of Class D and digital amps, I think that a 20-30yr old amp can sound as good as what is available today.  Class D and digital amps are relatively new, thus do not have vintage counterparts.

There is one caveat to the above- restoration.   A 20-30yr old amp may "work" in the sense that it passes an intelligible signal, it will likely not sound at its best.   A vintage amp should be fully serviced, with all caps replaced, and all resisters, wiring, diodes, rectifiers etc replaced as needed.  Only then can a valid comparison be made.

That said, a true high end amp from back in the day would be very competitive with a new amp of similar topology.   And at a cheaper price.

The original post specified SS amps.  I would expand this point to include tube amps.   Audio Research, Conrad Johnson and Luxman tube amps of 30yrs ago can also be restored to great effect and value.    I love the sound of my ARC V70....with new caps.    The HK Citation II, after rebuild, becomes a very compelling value in todays market.  And we all know about McIntosh, specifically the MC225, MC30, MC240, MC275.

I like a nice restored vintage component. I like working on them to a point. I've got issues with old gear though. 
First, folks ask WAY too much for it these days.
Second, condition and reliability are significant concerns. 
The third issue is repairs and restoration. 

Any 20 year old amp should at least be looked over and dialed in, if not completely recapped, especially if it's cap coupled. Getting that kind of work done is often not cheap. By the time you find a good example of something and put the money into getting it into good condition, has anything been saved? If somebody has a particular love affair with an amp then by all means restore and enjoy. If not, buy new. The field of amps has diversified in a variety of ways and I do think modern amps are better than older ones. 

The amp AB tests that I have read about...there is only a handful of them. They put people in unfamiliar rooms with unfamiliar gear and music...and of course it’s all too overwhelming to distinguish much. At audio shows you will sometimes hear people commenting that speakers start to sound the same. Anyway, we all have different hearing abilities. if someone can’t tell the difference between amps, it’s not accurate to assume that others can’t as well. 

I like to listen to a lot of different components in my system and can't underscore enough system synergy. That said, my biases lean heavily to the tube side of things and vinyl- keep that in mind when reading my comments. I recently ran an interesting test where I put up a new First Watt F6 vs a Bedini 25/25 that had been recapped.  Both 25 watt systems into 8 ohm doubling into 4 ohm. To my ears (and biases), the Bedini heartily outperformed the F6 being much warmer and relaxed.  To me the F6 was strident, thin and just to linear- a feature to one degree or another of all the solid-state gear I've listened to over the last 40 years. But there are listeners (one a good listening buddy who loves his Pass amps) who prefer that "sound" over a warmer tube sound which is great, as long as they are pleased with their outcome.  Btw- the last three years I've been listening to bi-amped systems in my primary rig- tubes on top and solid state on the bottom (vinyl, tube phono and tube line stage).  I can go into lots of detail on the tube amps I've rolled through but this thread specifically asked about solid state.  If the F6 represents a reasonable current state-of-the-art SS Amp and your biases lean towards a warmer sound, then at least one 40 year old SS amp can compete with today's high-end.  The Bedini amps, specifically the 10/10 and 25/25 to me, are really special and are the only solid-state amps I have been Happy listening to on a consistent basis. The 45/45 and 100/100 were good but in the end I let them go along with the F6.