Expensive Tube Amplifiers

Carbon composition resistors do have some value in certain applications especially where very wide bandwidth is desired. (Resistors have a bandwidth above which they can resonate and exhibit capacitance. Carbon Rs don’t resonate until very high frequencies way above audio.) But Carbon Rs also drift in value over time. So if the value is critical, I would not choose CC resistors.  I also (personal taste) do not think they are the end-all for transparency.  They are warm sounding (to me). Anyway, now we/I am exhibiting some "drift" in relation to the subject of this thread, whatever that is. Jim made a statement; he did not ask a question.

When I think of vintage coupling capacitors, I am thinking of paper foil in oil caps, some types of which are now banned because of PCBs, and rightly so. I have a bunch of vintage Sprague oil caps; IMO they are awful. There are modern oil caps too, made by Jansen (sp?).  I've used those. They are not the last word in transparency but worst of all, they fail suddenly under voltage, even when V is well below their stated rating  That happened to me twice, and I will never use them again. I would never think of Hovland capacitors as "vintage"; they are of modern construction and may even have been made by REL for Hovland. In fact, I doubt Hovland the company ever made capacitors. REL makes caps for other companies according to their customer’s spec, e.g., MIT.

@vuch What is world class about that amp?

I would and I have paid that much for tube amps, very happily. 

@dogearedaudio, The website articulates the unique design/capabilities of these amps in greater detail than I can. You may want to start there to gain an understanding to address your question. 

I can attest that these amps work very well with Magico speakers. Magico has a reputation of being hard to get right within a system, they mandate scrutiny of all components down the chain. It is not uncommon for audiophiles to give up on them before reaching the potential of the speakers. The old rule of thumb of "spend twice on speakers as amplification" is closer to inverse when applied to Magico. Thus when "stretching" for end game speakers there may not be a lot left over to update other components within the chain.

I didn't hear anything at AXPONA that impressed me beyond what I've already heard from the Magma M's. Hence, world class.

I have the magico q 7 a d love 700lbs of speakers.they do love power mci tosh 1.25 kw or bryston 28b3 or hegel 30 a all sound good with either soulution pre or dan dagostino or mc 12000 tube. Enjoy the music stay healthy