Interesting article on why hi-fi gear is not 'made like it used to be'....

[Wakefield Turntables]

I only skimmed through the article as the layout and grammar are poor .

oUCH!!!

[struth]

I only skimmed through the article as the layout and grammar are poor - but on the whole I would agree with the author, though of course there are several exceptions to his rather sweeping opinions.

An interesting read nonetheless.

80 per cent of British people struggle to pronounce common words, so what chance of punctuation ken whit a meen in that

[Barry]

I simply found it too difficult to read word by word. Partly due to the poor grammar but largely due to the layout. Punctuation was a minor issue.

I got his message, though if you are going to have a blog, web page or whatever, you owe it to your readership to at least make some effort with grammar, spelling and punctuation. The message is unlikely to be so important that there isn't time to use a spell checker or grammar checker.

[Barry]

oUCH!!!

Your 'Caps Lock' key is on.

[Arkless Electronics]

What's your opinion on the use of Integrated Circuits in amplifiers, Jez? Bloke on that site reckons they are the worst thing that ever happened.

I get the error message as well when trying to view that page. What I've seen before on that site though is execrable BS!

The guy on that site may think I.Cs are "are the worst thing that ever happened" but he doesn't seem to know much......
Which I.Cs in particular are we talking about here? If we are talking about stuff that's in the signal path and affords the actual amplification then I presume op-amps and I.C power amps (ridiculously known as "gain clones".... as if they hadn't been around for 40 years before!).

Since the TDA1034 came out, and was soon renamed under the Signetics code NE5534, we have had ever improving op amps capable of superb results. The best of the crop are good to the point that although they can be beaten by discrete designs, it takes a good discrete design to do it. They can save a vast amount of design effort for a start and also of course money and space... One of the biggest issues IMHO, both now and in the past, is the degree of compromise the manufacturers tend to make in order to make the IC as useful as possible over many different industries and price points. Nowadays especially they are obsessed with lowest possible power consumption in order to get max battery life from portable equipment etc. This is not compatible with max sound quality. Some of the better ones don't suffer much from this but could still be far better if the manufacturer's didn't give a toss about power consumption, and also made them capable of running from higher voltages.

The IC power amps these days are remarkably good and have come on leaps and bounds compared to the dire things they once were. The National Semiconductors (now Texas Instruments) "Overture Series" of ICs, used in most gain clones, can give shockingly good results for what they are. How good? It's dangerous to make of the cuff comparisons but I would say considerably better than something like a NAD 3020, A&R A60 etc (you tell my age by the first examples of good budget amps that spring to mind!) or their modern equivalents.

[southall-1998]

His write up on the Leak 20.

S.

(V) Leak Stereo 20 Valve Power amplifier ↑
No, too early. Only a 10w amp & pretty basic despite the size. From 1958 if various colours until 1962 with the bronze first, gold second & upspec green ones the last, as a seller's copied info states. We did see one in person years ago, but never had the preamp so pointless really as it needs the higher output preamp. One is on ebay & the seller states "it has the usual mods & upgrades". Big alert to us. People rarely do it properly. Idiot alert straight away: too lazy to buy Axial caps so has small coaxial (2 wires at one end) ones, oh dear. Then the Speaker outputs, likely worthwhile, but to us a "No" as they chop out original parts. Buy adaptor plugs or make them, do NOT chop up old amps. Doing the insides is OK, but hacking the outsides will put buyers off. Whoever done this has no idea what the ¬ type symbol meant & put the Red +ve socket there. These are amateur crap "mods" & clearly no idea what they are doing or what parts are for & doing it properly as one aware of design would. So it'll be weak using the same old values. They appear rather oddly to have put 3 bypass caps on the old spec value power supply caps. This is mediocre. Why anyone would want to buy lazy work like this instead of having an original one to do & still be disappointed with as the design is so old. In defence of the Stereo 20, it has good size output transformers & a clean internal layout. But the design is so old & values so out of date, frankly either buy one in original grade or don't bother. You could max a rough looking one out & still not be happy with it. Without going into design territory too deep, well where are the Valve bias adjusters for a start? Fixed bias is no good for "doing it properly", though it's acceptable. The Rogers HG88 mk III has a fairly crude bias slider to balance the output valves, but nowhere does it say how to bias. Look to modern guitar valve amps of quality for how it's done. The Leak valve amps are just too old. Buy them carefully & get a good one. Saw a much better 'restored' one on ebay in Aug 2014. They done a very neat job, nice to see good work as it's not common, sourcing NOS valves but sadly they have no design knowledge & just replaced like for like values. Explains why it's For Sale as it won't have been much better than an original one. Looking at the circuit this time to see the circuit. Not impressed: high value signal resistors to weaken the sound, typical low spec capacitors, EL84 outputs a strange design, but overall not a bad design at all, if upgraded like we have the Rogers HG88 Mk III, But that'd never be possible as the EZ34 valve rectifier couldn't cope with our high spec. Another Vintage Valve disappointment & to bypass the EZ34 with Diodes is not as easy as you think as the EZ34 drops the voltage quite noticeably. AC heaters on the input & splitter will reveal hum if you upgrade beyond it's capabilities. We've tried these things before, see. The nicely restored, if not upgraded one makes a modest £560 which is reflecting Buyers want either Original or properly Upgraded, not just Restored. April 2015 shows a late gold one bought in Harrods that appears to have sold for around £1100, very high grade & all original which is unusual, a rare direct-from-old-cabinet find. To call it 'Mint' is fair if the filter control knob has crumbled a bit & they state a resistor & capacitor are bad as pictured, but where do you match the original ones? As it's not working right possibly, it's very overpriced & not the Museum piece after all. But it's still just 10w & still has the very low spec & aged capacitors. A Museum piece it all it is, if a worthy exhibit, but to use one even fully rebuilt the user will soon become wearly of as 10w isn't enough in valves for anything but a backgrround volume & be sure bass is severely limited. It makes us wonder who buys these in anticipation of using them, but for the amount offered on ebay, the buy it, tire of it fast & resell it to another dreamer must be the deal. It's not much to look at to modern eyes, the preamp will be awful & clunky likt the Quad 22 preamp & on pushing in the buttons, the preamp case will slide away if put on a table to as it was only made for building in a cabinet. Think carefully about useability if one of these catches you eye & the Rogers Cadet III is 10w also & much nicer to use.

[Arkless Electronics]

Oh dear, oh dear

Total bollocks of the highest order!!! Apart from the awful spelling and grammar, as noted before, I'm more concerned that virtually everything he says is factually wrong! As to his opinions.... I ain't even going to go there....
From the above write up on the Stereo 20 I wouldn't trust this person to fit a 13 Amp plug correctly

[The Black Adder]

lol... "We've never read a page like this one we've written,"

[walpurgis]

From the above write up on the Stereo 20 I wouldn't trust this person to fit a 13 Amp plug correctly

I agree. Why would he suggest the Stereo 20 requires a pre-amp of higher than usual output, when the opposite is true. Even a passive is just fine.

[Arkless Electronics]

I agree. Why would he suggest the Stereo 20 requires a pre-amp of higher than usual output, when the opposite is true. Even a passive is just fine.

Yep..... maybe the green ones were different