Rogue vs ARC

I thoroughly enjoy my George Wright AU-15 amplifiers, and looking inside, I can guarantee the parts cost was modest. I also really enjoyed the Wright WPP200C phono preamp I owned at one time. Really nice "house sound" in these two Wright components despite the ordinary parts.

I think Nelson Pass might agree as well. Roger Modjeski too. Now, when marquis pricing is connected to those "high-end" passive parts with the promise of taking you yet one step closer to the absolute sound (without actually getting you there) it makes sense to sell with "Intel Inside". I'm no totally cynical on this, but I would take a great design over a box full of audio jewelry by a lesser designer any day of the week. So, I do agree, looking at parts is no way to tell if a design is good (to the ears).

Dgarretson, have you seen the new 450 watt class D amp they just released?

No_Money, I have not yet heard ARC 450. Of the several Class D amps that I have heard the Veloce battery/tube/hybrid sounds best.

It may be that some tube amps can be satisfying even with middling piece parts, because tube circuits are generally simpler than SS(i.e. fewer total parts). Improving SS PH-2 entailed replacing three dozen filtering and coupling capacitors, among other changes.

Dgarretson,

Thank you for your reply, and you raise some very good points. I don't know why he had the experience he did, but it may indeed just have been an outcome of ARS' brief foray into SS. And to support your comment about good circuit designs being timeless, he had been happy with that amp for over thirty years and didn't want anything else.