Rawson Amps

I imagine a Rawson buiold of a Pass circuit would sound pretty similar to a First Watt version, since I don't get the sense they are hard to make, only hard to create the circuit concept - so it proabably would be a lower cost way of enjoying the fruits Nelson Pass' work. My problem with buying the Rawson gear would be if it were in violation of Nelson's conditions for making the designs available to the DIY community in the first place, very generous in itself, and willingly as long a people don't use his intellectual property for commercial gain. NP is a genius circuit designer and the value of a Pass product and his sharing his "experiments" is of great value to the DIY and design community. If Rawson's clones jeopardize that participation by Nelson Pass that I would not support the Rawson product - it seems to violate the spirit of NP's "gift" to the DIY builders. Does it cost Pass sales of his First Watt products? Proabably not much, but not really the point.

Thanks for the replies and input

I have both Rawson F 5 mono blacks and a Real FirstWatt F5 from Nelson Pass. The sound very similar in all areas! As to the intellectual property, that is a personal choice that individuals make with the possibility of being held accountable. It would be better to dig your hands in and do your own diy amp with the use of official Nelson Pass boards, avail on there website. Is this what China does? I have had great luck with TR amps and with the cost of parts, he did not make much if anything, but still the question. I have found soldering not so hard thus built a B1 and am working on some chip amps for practice. diypass.com and firstwatt.com. Notice, official Firstwatt buyers got free upgrades last month...

Isn't the point rather moot now? As I understand it, Tim got tired of threads like these calling his ethics into question and retired ....

Where right or wrong I feel like we are beating a dead horse.

The question was asked by someone thinking of buying one, not a theoretical question. What seems odd is that Tim a strightup guy, yet he really seems to have done something to make Nelson Pass feel crossed. 1000s of threads questioning the ethics of what he was doing? Makes you wonder doesn't it?