Best Vintage tube amp / preamp manufacturer

I worked on a lot when I was putting myself thru college working as a service technician.

The best preamp from that time for me has been the Citation 1 preamp from Harmon Kardon. I prefer it to both the Marantz 7 preamp and the Mac stuff. I don't know of a solid state preamp from that period that was really in the running; the best of those I worked on was the old Accuphase, which in my impression was built a lot better than it sounded, although it didn't sound bad. Of course this assumes that the equipment is properly refurbished.

The best power amp of that period also seems to be an HK- the Citation 2 although I never liked the power supply in that amp as it needs proper attention to detail when rebuilding it. If properly refurbished it easily kept up with ARC of the period, as well as anything from Mac or Marantz. None of the solid state amps of that era were on the same level, although some of them were quite interesting simply out of what they accomplished at the time. Semiconductors were not up to snuff in the 1960s and barely so in the early 1970s. Funny though, the colorations of early semiconductor effects pedals for guitar make them really popular and collectable nowadays.

I have an use a 1961 MC240 that was significantly modified by Mike Samra. IMO some of the best output transformers ever made.. IF you want to hear what your gear is capable of, modern power supply bridge / caps / regulation, pristine nos tubes, great coupling and interstage caps and importantly isolation… even the dense 50# MC240 greatly benefits, i use HRS.

I have a Citation I and an MC275, both modded/restored by my buddy Mike Samra. Incredible pieces, I recently went speaker shopping and none of the $$$ demo pre’s and power amps did much to make me long for newer gear. I recently retubed the preamp’s line section with Mullards from Jim McShane. 

Audio research.

@koh_i_noor If you like the old ARC stuff (like the SP-3) then if you can find an H/K Citation 1 and have it refurbished you're in for a pleasant surprise. The weak bit about the Citation was its connectors (which were the only game out there at the time) aren't very nice. But otherwise I think its a better preamp.