What is the future of amp technolgy?

I am really not sure anyone is trying to make solid state sound like tubes, (except for the guys at Conrad Johnson). The goal should be to make it sound real.

What is new are people like Gilbert Yeung at Blue Circle, who are taking a fresh approach and designing gear using their ears, instead of a bunch of electronic measuring equipment (helps to have great hearing). Many audio reviewers are perplexed by some Blue Circle gear, because when they hook it up to all their testing equipment, it does not spec out well on paper; which really means it does not measure against the "established norm". So they cannot not explain in a technical sense why Blue Circle gear sounds so good. This calls into question whether the "established norm" matters, or is there a better benchmark. I have read that Gilbert Yeung has said that he could make his amplifers have a quieter background, but not without sacrificing the amps musical qualities.

I guess we now call this "thinking outside the box".

Spectron seems to be doing interesting things with digital class D amplifiers. Some people seem to love it. I personally have only heard it on a low-fi system at CES and did not and do not have the expertise it would take to isolate the 'potentially great sounding amplifier' from the many 'weakest links' of the overall system.

Here is the link:

Spectron

From my perspective as a software geek, this is the future. Oversampling in the multi-Mhz range, 128bit word lengths... The technology to archive and reproduce music will be perfect. The only problems will be the analog to digital on the front end (microphones, etc.) and D to A on the back end (amplifier output stage and speakers).

We will get there in time...

Purely an opinion of course, but I really think that all three types of amps (and hybrids) will continue to co-exist for a long time-- of course just in the high end community. A select sub-group of audiophiles will always swear by a pure tube approach for example, and innovative/imaginative designers will continue to experiment with all new technologies. It wouldn't surprise me to eventually see disagreements between SS "analog" amp owners and digital amp owners.

I usually agree with most of Tim's opinions, but on this we disagree on much. I love my HQ digital system and have gone to great lengths to make it musical. I use a tube pre-amp and solid state amp, and love the synergy-- the SS amp is smooth, fast, and powerful with excellent bass control, and the tube pre-amp adds-- well, some of the "magic" of tubes. Cheers. Craig

Craig-That is my point in audio!! one mans virtue is anothers fault, that's why are system's are different ;)

fwiw I only have a digital source, so I am sort of an odd duck-but we all knew this already!

I also play some guitar as an alternate hobby (like I need one). In the guitar world tube amps rule, and are prized for their colorations and distortions. This is almost the polar opposite of the hifi view.

In recent years various guitar amp manufacturers have introduced digital modeling amps. These use lots of computer processing power to run a digital model of various classic guitar amps (i.e. various Fender, Marshall, Vox, Matchless etc amplifiers).

At first the results were like a caricature of the real tube amp sound and feel (the way the amp responds to the player's nuances). However, with faster processors and better digital modeling techniques, the current crop of modeling amps are coming surprisingly close to the originals they emulate. They even capture amp-speaker interaction.

So I wonder about the intermediate future of hi-fi amplification. Might we see an advanced version of digital amplifier modeling coupled with room modeling and a Class D output stage to give us the sound of any of out favorite classic tube (or solid state) amplifiers? Imagine being able to change amp models on the fly from a remote control to select just the right one for the music at hand.

But could we as audiophiles accept such an innovation?