What new technology? Modern analog gear uses the same classic circuits, but often with lower-quality parts and construction.

There is very little ‘new technology’ in analog audio. Most analog electronic circuit designs date back to the earliest days of tubes and transistors. Even things like class-D and class-T amps are not new, nor are they designed to produce the highest fidelity.

Yes, there are some superb new op-amps, transistors and circuits that utilise them, but premium parts and circuits are found in premium equipment. A strong argument can be made for the fact that the best analog audio engineering is all discrete component design, though, with as few op-amps as possible.

My Tektronix SG505 ultra-low distortion audio signal generator that I use in the workshop is a great example. This wonderful piece of gear dates back to the 1980s and yet boasts < 0.0008% distortion, using ‘old’ NE5532 and similar op-amps! This thing is an order of magnitude better than most gear I ever test, but it uses old technology!

High-end gear often contains tubes and… oh that’s right, all the best tubes are old ones, from the ’50s and ’60s. They certainly aren’t new. Actually, this ‘new technology’ thing is grossly overstated and misunderstood.

Digital is different. As an emergent technology, things are improving, at least on paper. It’s still all about the execution though. My end-game Accuphase DC-91 DAC from the 1990s still sounds better than any other DAC I’ve heard, old or new. That is mostly because of the design, engineering and execution, not the DAC chips (16 of them) used inside.

Where this is more important is in affordable new gear. Cheap new DACs often sound better than cheap older ones. Cheap new amplifiers though, from experience, do not.

I’ll leave you with one final thought, from an old ex-science teacher: We put men on the moon in 1969, with old technology. Do you think we could muster up the same effort now? I’m not convinced we could.