"Max Holubitsky" wrote in message


However, there is a third point, and that is that many relatively
good vintage tube receiver/integrated pieces were actually
weak-sister representatives of tube technology when they were new.
It was no secret that tubed receivers were very problematical
because of heat and weight issues. When you bought a tubed receiver
you didn't get a Marantz-like power amp with a tuner. You didn't
even get a Dyna-like power amp with a tuner. You got a down-sized
tubes, lightened output and power transformers, and a crowded
chassis that exacerbated natural heat problems.

Some of the Fisher receivers, Mac receivers, and Sansui receivers are
known to have good quality power sections, with "real" output iron.

Could you be more vague?

Conversely, some separates were not high quality. I generally agree
with you though.

As a rule and this includes Fisher and Sansui receivers, tubed receivers had
critical components, particularly transformers, that were small and light
compared to even mediocre separates.

Good speakers are the key to
good sound! Personally I think that the amp should be bought to suit
the speakers, and not the other way around.

Since just about all speakers made in the last 30 years were
designed to be used with SS amplifiers...

Replace SS amplifiers with amplifiers having a low output impedance.

Rare, expensive birds.

What difference does it make, from the speakers perspective, if the
amplifier is tube or solid state, provided it has a decent damping
factor, and adequate power?

The difference is that SS amps with low output impedances are essentially
the rule, and tubed power amps with comparably low output impedances were
the exception. Name even one tubed receiver that had a damping factor of 100
at 20 Hz. How many SS amps do that or better? 100's!