Matti Ottala's thesis on amplifier design that was part of the promotional material at Electrocompaniet's product launches and during visits to other countries, was pretty controversial too. IF I recall correctly, it sparked John Curl's interest which he subsequently followed up with his own developments along Ottala's lines. Bob Cordell and other engineering heavyweights however, disagreed with the theories and as far as I have read, still do.
'Seems the cauldron is still bubbling and not much has changed over the years since.
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'Seems the cauldron is still bubbling and not much has changed over the years since.
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My second-hand view which I've heard but is not my personal opinion is that the net effect of what was done with this design is a very musical bass. i.e. one that is capable of many rapid changes at the lower end. But as I say, not an opinion I stand by as I've not heard one of these amps as a 'grownup'
Thanks God Technology advances, parts are more consistent, we have better instruments to measure them, new experiments are devised, etc.
That said, amplifiers in general are very good and have been so for a long time, they are not a limiting factor as in the 50´s, where "Hi Fi" was a dream, 20Hz to 20kHz was a very difficult task, same as going below 1% distortion, etc.
Today (and already for over 20 years) a humble $5 chipamp provides performance old Engineers would have murdered for.
In principle an amp reaching 2MHz flat is "better" than one reaching "just" 200kHz , 0.001% distortion is better than 0.01% and so on, and that can easily be measured, but that has absolutely NO relevance to what any Human Being can hear.
Now don´t start me on speakers
That said, amplifiers in general are very good and have been so for a long time, they are not a limiting factor as in the 50´s, where "Hi Fi" was a dream, 20Hz to 20kHz was a very difficult task, same as going below 1% distortion, etc.
Today (and already for over 20 years) a humble $5 chipamp provides performance old Engineers would have murdered for.
In principle an amp reaching 2MHz flat is "better" than one reaching "just" 200kHz , 0.001% distortion is better than 0.01% and so on, and that can easily be measured, but that has absolutely NO relevance to what any Human Being can hear.
Now don´t start me on speakers
I always enjoy vintage stuffs whatever it is, because they have more character than today's rather gentrified equipments. Owning it and using it everyday is a different story, though. If audio equipments are small like watches, I'm sure that vintage audio equipments collection should be a very popular hobby.
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This on its own is not half bad
My Halcro memories are a bit vague, but not pleasant, while the Chord... just makes me shudder.
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