New vs Used - Significant sonic improvements in preamp/amp design in the last 20 years?

Thank you for your perspective. I've been a long-time fan of Atma Sphere. The products have always had a reputation for being extremely well designed with great sonics. 

I'd say it depends on what you need in a piece of equipment. I'd put my 20+ year old Rowland Model 2 power amp, and 50 year old Marantz 7t pre-amp up against more modern designs for sonic enjoyment.

That said, there are some amazing products out today that just wouldn't haven't been possible back then. Companies like Lyngdorf appear to have few detractors when it comes to sound quality, flexibility and packaging ( in the product sense). 

Yes Sir - We option with Caddock resistors (which are custom built for us) and so far have yet to see anything surpass them (please note that Caddock makes a number of different parts that are intended for different applications, so my statement applies to a certain model).


Most designs have not changed that much.  It is not IMO that old versus new but design versus design.  What I mean is for example Counterpoint which I repair and upgrade had 6 or more preamp designs so upgrading the basic preamp versus the top of the line models have benefits but it is not until you modify the lower end models to make the design change to be more like the higher end models do they begin to sound the same.  Even the higher end Counterpoint preamps used a $7.00 volume control.  But like stated above, replacing the older caps and resistors can make big sonic improvements for not much ching.

I would say that most any component can be repaired or modified unless the parts cannot be source but even then there may also be some workarounds to repair them - cost may be the overall limiting factor.

I would put my old Lafayette KT-550 tube power amp up against most any amplifier and probably still be competitive in stock mode.

Happy Listening.

I appreciate the replies and helps validate what I’ve heard in my and other systems. The point about "design vs design" is key. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge and technical experience.  I also want to learn more about systems like Lyngdorf.