@freediver - I own a number of the amps you mention. They sound very nice. In fact, I have a cheap 25 watt pure Class A Chinese amp that just spent significant time in my main system and I was truly impressed with its performance when matched with much higher priced gear. As people have said, I’m sure parts quality could be better and the designs may not be original (not necessary illegal - a US patent is good for only 20 years and that’s assuming it was patented to begin with). Try one out, you might be surprised.
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I find the charge of stealing a circuit design interesting. For example, when it comes to tube amplifiers, but a handful of designs exist, with almost all developed between the 1930s and 1950s. Beyond the SET designs from Western Electric and that ilk, with an exception or three, push-pull tube amplifiers use the Dynaco (taken from the guitar industry), Mullard (99% of modern offerings), or Williamson circuit, the latter two offered to inspire creating products in the audio market. Same goes for power supplies. When a company claims their circuit is proprietary, or its developed some exciting "innovations", it simply means they’ve added / removed / tried a different value part to what’s long existed, and felt it worked or sounded better. Look at the schematic (which no one provides anymore), and it will employ one of the aforementioned classic designs. I’ll use a recipe as an analogy. A restaurant or home cook may have a recipe for chicken marsala or whatever you care to imagine. Their particular interpretation varies in the inclusion / ratio of ingredients and implementation. Does any rational person challenge or denigrate them for it? |
The entire DIY community is based on the premise that there are some great designs that can be used to build great sounding audio gear. The best example is Nelson Pass and how he shares his excellent designs with the world so everyone can enjoy them if they are willing and able to build the gear. So basically the selection of the components and the attention to details in what separates a good product from a piece of garbage. |
This amp is a popular one that the DIY guys like to mod. Its an old design that Nelson Pass speaks well of. https://m.ebay.com/itm/Douk-Audio-HD1969-Gold-Seal-HiFi-Class-A-Power-Amplifier-Stereo-Amp-15W-2-Bla... |
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