Best Vintage tube amp / preamp manufacturer

Western Electric, Northern Electric, RCA, Marantz, Sansui are some of the old tube gear makers who made good stuff way back.  I own custom made amps and a linestage made with vintage parts from such gear (mainly Western Electric transformers, caps and tubes).  But somewhat oddly, it is a solid state component from the past that I want—the Lyra Connoisseur phono stage.

Western Electric, Northern Electric, RCA, Marantz, Sansui are some of the old tube gear makers who made good stuff way back.  I own custom made amps and a linestage made with vintage parts from such gear (mainly Western Electric transformers, caps and tubes).  But somewhat oddly, it is a solid state component from the past that I want—the Lyra Connoisseur phono stage.

Western Electric, Northern Electric, RCA, Marantz, Sansui are some of the old tube gear makers who made good stuff way back.  I own custom made amps and a linestage made with vintage parts from such gear (mainly Western Electric transformers, caps and tubes).  But somewhat oddly, it is a solid state component from the past that I want—the Lyra Connoisseur phono stage.

With Western Electric, it is both sound and collector value that makes its gear so expensive.  The circuits tend to be simple and one can find clones made with modern parts.  Many such clones sound quite good, but, when one hears a vintage amp in good condition, or clones using expensive original parts, it is clear that the quality of the parts sets their gear apart.

What distinguishes Western Electrics is the terrific sounding midrange and very dynamic, yet natural sound.  The downside of the sound is a soft, somewhat restricted top end and a lack of extreme bottom end extension too.