Point to point or pcb?
 

Hi,
Sonically which are better amps, ones that are p2p wired or pcb based?

PCB of course, especially with red laminate :D

Seriously; there can not be any difference, if both are well designed and built.

In my book it's six to one and half a dozen to the other. There's really no difference. Both require careful layout oor best performance.

Yes, you can make good and bad amps both ways. Given the big temperature changes I would expect a valve amp to be a bit more reliable when wired P2P as this gives more flexibility to cope with thermal expansion. However, for the inexperienced constructor a well-designed PCB (designed by someone experienced i.e. a kit) might avoid some problems.

If only one amplifier is built and if the design is not fully tested, point to point is the only meaningful construction.

PCBs are okay if you can squeeze in that extra large can cap you wanted to. Point to point without helping hands or at least a Panavise is just horrible to work with.

I would have to say if you like to swap things out and mod/change/swap things around to change whatever you are outputting, then so long as the copper trace is a good one on a nice PCB, than a PCB it is is easier than point to point.

Point to point done well, can really look like a masterpiece sculpture.

Otherwise, I can't tell the difference if two amps were done with in one of each.

Ptp certainly. Especially if on a teflon board using good quality stand-offs. Not sure if it's because of the vibrational properties of the board or the wire with better dielectric - i mostly use copper/silver inside teflon or cotton tubing. Not to mention shorter connections and better star earthing.

IIRC Teflon is an excellent low-loss dielectric for UHF and microwaves. I guess your amplifiers have an extended bandwidth?

I love circuit boards - but sadly mostly build p2p since just about everything is a one-off.

Given a good layout (either P2P or PCB) there shouldn't be any performance difference between the two. However, there are many ways to screw up and arrive at a poor layout. I put considerable effort into the PCBs I make to ensure good signal integrity.

For making several identical circuits, PCBs can't be beat. For prototyping, P2P is rather nice.

I tend to prototype in P2P rat's nests (i.e. not optimal layouts by any stretch of imagination) and notice the mains hum drop significantly when the circuit is transferred to a PCB.

~Tom