What amps do Electrical Engineers own...why?

Which ever amps have the BEST specs.

Not in the case of this EE. IMO the proper (and necessary) role of specs is to allow one to identify and RULE OUT from consideration candidates that would be poor matches to either the surrounding components (for example, due to impedance incompatibilities, gain and sensitivity mismatches, etc.) or to the user's requirements (for example, how much power is needed to support desired peak volumes).

I chose my VAC Renaissance 70/70 MkIII amplifier because of VAC's reputation for outstanding sonics and exceptional build quality; their exemplary approach to dealing with and supporting their customers; because my previous amplifier experiences had me convinced that the kind of sonic richness and dimensionality I was looking for tends to be a forte of well designed tube amplification; and because of what I perceived to be a recognition among many listeners whose opinions I particularly respect that well implemented zero feedback designs utilizing directly heated triodes such as the 300B tend to have a certain magic about them.

Also, the cost of this particular amplifier, purchased used, was comfortably within the bounds of what I wanted to spend. Its physical configuration and appearance were significant factors as well, especially given that my system is in my living room.

Regards,
-- Al

12-22-12: Charles1dad
No NFB and DHT tubes is a very solid foundation to build with. Has it meet your expectations?

Yes, I continue to be delighted with the amp, particularly since I upgraded the stock 6SN7's to Sophia Electrics. Some vintage Sylvanias I tried were also excellent, slightly less revealing although perhaps a bit more euphonic with some recordings. I have no plans to upgrade the VAC-supplied Chinese 300B's, especially considering that there are 8 of them :-)

12-22-12: Don_c55
I am an electrical engineer and very,very few other EE's that I know have much interest in high end audio, they are mostly skeptical of improvement over brand name audio. They are not wealthy and would not spend big bucks on audio.

A point worth keeping in mind is that the same could be said of the general population.

Newer EE's are digital educated unlike those from the analog era. Only ancient EE's know tubes.

Very true IME. My perception has been that most EE's coming out of school in the past couple of decades or so, and who work as circuit designers, usually have very little knowledge of any kind of analog design, much less tubes.

Regards,
-- Al

Gfcf, EE's are a diverse lot, just like the general population. As can be seen in many of the responses that have been posted in this thread, the answer to your question is clearly no.

However, it would probably be fair to say that the EE's at A'gon tend to be, on average, somewhat more likely than others to challenge what they perceive to be hype and misinformation, which the field of audio is certainly not without its share of.

Regards,
-- Al

12-27-12: Rok2id
I would like for someone to name ONE Amp with horrible specs, that sounds good.

Actually, that's an easy question. Just about any high end tube amplifier will have specs for Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) that are vastly worse than the corresponding specs of pretty much any inexpensive mass market-oriented solid state receiver. And likewise for damping factor specs, if the comparison is based on the commonly held (but oversimplified and essentially mistaken) belief that the higher the damping factor the better. The high quality tube amplifier, nevertheless, will sound vastly better than the inexpensive solid state receiver, assuming at least that the tube amp's technical characteristics are not grossly mismatched to the requirements of the speaker that is being used.

Why? Because the low THD and high damping factor numbers of inexpensive solid state equipment typically result from the use of large amounts of negative feedback, which in turn reduces relatively unobjectionable distortion components, while resulting in higher levels of those distortion components which our hearing mechanisms find most offensive. A point that Atmasphere has frequently made. And because the low THD comes at the expense of increased Transient Intermodulation Distortion (TIM), for which standardized specifications (or even any specifications) do not exist as far as I am aware. And because very high damping factors will result in mismatches to many speakers, and will most likely be overkill for all other speakers.

As I indicated in my earlier post specs can serve useful purposes. And ignoring specs altogether can be expected to often lead to expensive mistakes, resulting from mismatches with other components and/or the user's requirements. But specs need to be considered with care and understanding.

Regards,
-- Al

Thanks, Rok2id. I wasn't intending to avoid the issue.

If we restrict the question to solid state amps, offhand I can't think of any having really poor specs that nevertheless provide top-notch sonics, but there are many renowned high quality amps whose THD and damping factor specs are not **as good** as those of many inexpensive mass market-oriented receivers and amplifiers. Ayre and Pass Labs are just a couple of the many such manufacturers that could be named. Those amplifiers typically use minimal or no feedback, and are able to avoid the use of greater amounts of feedback as a result of the use of high quality parts, and design approaches that are less constrained by cost considerations than in the case of the inexpensive equipment I referred to.

Regards,
-- Al