Re: Hifi landmarks

Max, good, if these don't duplicate other landmarks on this list. What trend
does the 92A represent. If it's Williamson, than it could be a specific
example of this.

Same for the RCA. We don't want a whole pile of very similar things.

Same for HK Citation II. A good amp. What made it an advance? What made it
new at the time, other than being good?

Please elaborate, if you feel that these deserve to be represented as
landmarks. Quality cannot be the primary reason. There have been thousands
of high quality amplifiers. They can't be individually represented.


"Max" <no@xxxxxxx> wrote in message news:is4Jg.483981$iF6.146017@xxxxxxxxxxx
I'll add a couple items

1.1 A pair of Western Electric 92A theatre amplifiers, and enough spare
parts to keep them going forever...
1.2 Some high end RCA theatre amplifiers
1.3 A pair of Brook 10C amplifiers
4.1 Harmon Kardon Citation II



"soundhaspriority" <nowhere@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1sOdnSquk-gmJ2nZnZ2dnUVZ_rednZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
People seem to be interested in collecting miserable Japanese mass market
items from the 60's and 70's with jukebox visuals, as well as other
chromy, unredeeming crap.

How do people choose what to collect?
1. It makes them feel younger.
2. It represents a period of "design", by which I mean, packaging, not
guts.
3. Collecting is an activity of reverie, of evoking memories. Therefore,
the choice need not be logical.

I am not a collector of historical items. I've played with them, lived
with them, and largely discarded them. I have a few such items only
because I have a personal connection, or they were obtained for practical
reaons that would not interest the practical hifi user. However, I do
have my own list of benchmarks, which represent my own highly personal
view of important steps in the evolution of hifi, in rapid growth during
the 20th century, a late flowering, and recent decline. If I were a
collector, I would seek amplifiers with a relation to the below list.

This list of amplifiers is not about quality. It's about evolution; what
appeared in the marketplace to inspire a wave of similar efforts.

1. The RCA Victrola
2. Williamson amplifiers
3. The Ultralinear design, which may be sampled as the Dynaco Stereo 70
4. Pick one tube Macintosh.
4. The Dyna Stereo 120, as perhaps the end evolution of capacitively
coupled bipolar amplifiers.
5. 1st generation direct coupled amps. Many were made. Pick one.
6. Clean bipolar solild state. Several approaches resulted in pretty good
results: Crown DC300/DC300A, MacIntosh, etc. Both used precision
biasing to reduce measured distortion far below what was previously
achieved.
7. The MOSFET amp. The Hafler DH-200, and the Acoustat TNT-200, both
early 1980's.
8. Pick a Krell or other "blameless" design, representing bipolar
amplifiers of a very high standard.
9. A modern SET amplifier.
10. A modern switching amplifier.


Each of these products was followed by a host of competitors with equal,
better, or simply different quality, or a mutation with different sonic
characteristics.







.

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