A great example of advanced amplifier design today is the David Berning Z amplifers. High tech stuff and sounds great, does not sound like tubey tube amps or SS gear they sound more like the tonality of tubes with the bass and clarity of the better SS. This stuff uses quite an advance switching power supply amongst some other really interesting features. Berning has always been decades ahead of the pack technology wise. Tubes are his specialty and its obvious he wants to try and take advantage of them to the utmost extent. I'll be very interested to see how much better digital sources will become in the next few years, I hope we can get analog performance from the digits some day. Maybe I'm just a dreamer :)
What is the future of amp technolgy?
As digital technology makes strides toward the future, amp technology seems to returning to its roots of pre-1960. Tube amps are experiencing a large increase in popularity, and SS amps are generally moving to a more "tube like" sound. Then there is this new digital amp technology, that I don't know much about. Are tube amps the wave of the future, or a dinosaur from the past? Will SS amps finally reach a point when there is no reason to buy a tube amp? Will Digital amps eclipse both tube and SS amps, and become the best of all worlds? Your thoughts?