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Point to Point vs Circuit Board

I just read this about point to point wiring:

First, there’s the music’s signal. You spend a lot of money on interconnects. So why have the signal go right from the RCA jacks or speaker terminals into circuit boards with copper traces so thin you can hardly see them? What’s high-end about that?


I've now heard about point to point wiring in the case of tube amp companies (Jadis, PrimaLuna) and my question is does point to point wiring exist for solid state amps? When I look at images inside amps online all solid state amps seem to use circuit boards. Is there such thing as a point to point transistor amp or must they necessarily have circuit boards? If so, which companies?

Thanks

gmercer

Showing 2 responses by larryi

larryi
3,754 posts
 
Even in the tube camp, not everyone will agree that point-to-point is superior.  You can spend well into six figures for an Audio Note amp, and it utilizes printed circuit boards.  I don't think this was done to cut cost, as nothing else in their designs suggest a cost-cutting mentality.  These amps sound fantastic.
larryi
3,754 posts
 
I know a builder that does something pretty unique.  He primarily builds amps, preamps and linestages, but, he also builds DACs.  All of his builds employ point-to-point wiring (he builds tube gear), but for the DAC, a circuit board is used for the digital/conversion part of the unit.  But, the circuit board is not actually printed, even if it looks to be a printed board on casual inspection.  The board is a sheet of bakelite with a sheet of copper bonded to the bakelite.  The circuit traces are made by CNC machining out of the copper sheet to leave the traces.  
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