I love the sound of the old goodies, just received another 3 of them this week. You have to know which ones are the special sounding ones. And yes they get much better with age. I don’t like the sound of anything complicated and I mechanically tune all of my components after I get them. I think I have had one with a bad cap but that was it.
When I look to make a purchase, if it says recapped I keep my distance. The sound of older solid state parts (with a good design) sound very much like tubes, in some cases even better. I bring in several different models during a years time to find the ones that really perform.
Last year and this year I’m putting these head to head up against HEA’s best and well lets just say a lot of my newer HEA has been up on Audiomart, and I hope to get more of it sold this year. I bet I took about a $60,000.00 bath last year on the amps and DACs I bought. Some horrible sounding stuff, and on Stereophile’s recommended list too.
Michael Green
www.michaelgreenaudio.net