This month's Stereophile magazine and particularly Sam's Space where he discusses the LFD integrated amp is interesting. Dr. Richard Bews is the founder, designer and builder of the amp. He has worked with the same overall circuit design for years to produce the same power level of 65 watts. What has changed from model to model is the sound based on the sound and quality of individual parts he can find.

My thoughts are this man must have incredible hearing to be able to choose from different parts. One of his comments was that individual parts are not as well made or sound as good today as parts manufactured years ago. Maybe the vintage folks are onto something. Shindo is another manufacturer that builds based on the sound of parts and uses some NOS parts he has collected.

I know of other designers that find circuit layout very important. The shortest path and all. We also have hugely powerful amps that use a large number of parts to produce that power.

Does anyone find it interesting how amps are designed and the huge number of choices available? Tube amps being hardwired instead of PC boards. I think in some ways at the design level amps are the most interesting to me.

I know we have some Nelson Pass fans here but does anyone else have a favorite amp or designer?