a little addition for all of you n.e.w. fans, as i am one my self. i have owned every piece that n.e.w. ever marketed, including the lp-1 phono stage & their octal tube cd player.
brooks is correct. the original n.e.w. amp was the a-20, and it was indeed a ripoff of the zenmaster's work, but that's mitch friedman for you. the a-20.1 was assembled at tibi electronics, with various components outsourced. i don't know who mitch had make the a-20.1 pcb, my eyes aren't good enough to make out the stamp on the board.
as for the a-60, this amp is actually 2 a-20.1 pcb's per channel. each a-60 channel has 1 fully stuffed pcb & 1 pcb only stuffed with output stage components. the two a-20.1 pcbs are bridged together at the inputs to the output stages. also, the a-60 has a larger torroid, both in size & output volts supplied to the + & - rails,also with dual windings (one for each channel) . this allows for the 2 a-20.1 ciuruts per channel to be biased at a higher value without dragging too much transformer hum in to the audio.
this also causes the a-60 to run hotter than the a-20, even though they are the same circuits ,hence, the larger heatsink surface area.
the n.e.w. a-60 was manufactured by cary audio, as well as the n.e.w. p-3 tube preamp. it is unclear to me who thought of the idea of taking 2 a-20.1's and making them into an a-60. sounds again like mitch friedman, but hey, it worked like a som'bitch. the only thing 'old' about the n.e.w. a-60 are the a-20.1 pcb's inside it.
cary audio labs will presently service any n.e.w. product as they obviously know the circuits inside & out.
kirk is the man to contact at cary.
happy listening......
p.s. my system
kuzma stabi s 'table
kuzma stogi s 'arm
benz glider h/o
graham slee era v phono stage
arcam fmj dvd 27 a dvd/cdp
highly modified n.e.w. p-3 pre (by yours truly)
highly modified threshold s200 stasis/e amp
note: only using above amp while i am converting 2 a-
20.1's in to a-60 custom monoblocks (by yours truly)
cabasse brick 500 speakers
siltech interconnects
cardas speaker cables