For SET and Tube lovers - What SS Power amps do you like?

I've gone back and forth on a number of tube and solid state amps. What I've settled on with a combination of drive, reliability, and sonic attributes of much of the bloom of a tube amp is Steve McCormack's modifications of his basic designs. He will take one of the DNA amps and custom build it to your sonic goals for under $5000.

John K.

 

McCormack has gone out of business.

 

I like the Rega Elicit, but I suppose it’s one of those that isn’t necessarily a straight shooter.

 

That's the thing there are a fair number of nice sounding amplifiers but as you look through the thread many of them like the Sugden A21a, First Watt Sit amps are under 30 watts. Others have special considerations like Spectral or the amps are not particularly powerful enough. Or of course they're good and cost $20,000+

I kind of laugh because 15 years ago I was running into the same kind of issues often with all the mentioned brands - and even when you talk about the likes of Pass Labs - "just get one and forget it" well Nelson Pass spends most of his time these days on First Watt amplifiers of under 15 watts which isn't coincidence.

 

Now that is an intriguing suggestion - Haven't seen this brand in years until I came to Hong Kong.

As a quick aside - I liked Accuphase based systems back in the day but as I recall they were jaw droppingly expensive. Still looking at their site their entry level power amp is 1ohm stable and 500 watts per channel.

And I love the look of them - give me meters! I love meters!

 

Richard, if you get chance try to listen the Spec hardware they are quite impressive with correct speakers and they don't burn your pockets, I am using their the entry level stuff..
SPEC CORPORATION

 

I'll mention the Anthem 225 again. If the goal is not to spend too much but to also get enough power to drive 90%+ of all the speakers out there, I'm thinking it'd be tough to beat. Sounds nice too, better than most of the SS stuff I've tried. That said, I don't really venture past the $2K per component mark, and most of the time I am under that. I'm sure there are nicer sounding amps out there but most of them will cost more.

 

I'm not talking about McCormack:

SMc Audio

John K.

 

I'm not clear on this company - I am looking at current model amplifiers. My understanding is I need to go and buy a Steve McCormack amplifier on the second hand market - then ship the amplifier to Steve McCormack to have him then upgrade the used amplifier so it will sound good. So the question one asks is why not have sold the upgraded amplifier in the first place? Living in Hong Kong it would seem a lot of shipping costs on top . So that proposition seems to me to be too onerous.

 

I use a McIntosh MC152 in my living room system. I'd say this review does it credit. Maybe it's the autoformers, but the big McIntosh amps are the closest SS to tubes in my book. 250 watts per channel, with 2, 4, and 8 ohm taps. I think McIntosh tends to get a pretty expensive plane ticket to other countries, however.

 

Some interesting suggestions - have you tried the mono block class D amps from PS Audio - An awful lot of power for a not too wallet breaking price. I wonder how these compare sonically to the BK300

 

I forgot you are in Hong Kong, so yes, shipping would be ridiculous.

Why not build it in the first place? Price points in the marketplace to have a range of products for buyers to choose from; going for a "sound" that is appealing to the widest range of buyers. But in any case he essentially did sell the upgraded version, with the DNA-500, which incorporated most of what he knew, cost $7,000 new, and still goes for about half that on the used market. Otherwise you can pick up an older DNA amplifier for less than a grand, and have it customized to your sonic preferences.

John K.

 

Yep, the new Stellar amps from PS are also very impressive considering the price points they fall under. I sold 2 pairs of the stereo version (s300) last week, and have another customer coming on Monday to order one as well.

 

No one here owns nor has heard a SIT (Static Induction Transistor) amplifier? To even warrant a mention.
Or as Sony branded them in the 1970s, VFET (Vertical Field Effect Transistor) output amplifiers.

SiTs or VFETs, as they came to be marketed as, were specifically invented to mimic the characteristics of triode tubes specifically for use in audio amplifiers.

EDIT: Upon reading further I do see that murphycat does mention, in passing, Nelson Pass' new implementation of SiTs in his recent First Watt series of amps.
But I have no experience with the new iterations of SiT amps only the vintage variety.

 

I still have my Aragon 8008. I use it some when I pull out my tube amps.

 

While the SIT amps are fine they are not high power or low ohm stable and IMO they don't at all sound like a SET - first SET amps don't all sound remotely alike either so anytime someone says a SS or SIT sounds like a SET they're clueless. They may sound like one SET amplifier but an Audio Note 2a3 and an Audio Note 300B for the same money sound better than SS but they don't sound like each other so how on earth could a SIT amplifier sound like all encompassing SET amps?

I have auditioned the SIT second hand and they were good - I get why some would liken them to a SET but you can't change the sound - they don't sound "better" so the only reason to have them is if you really don't want to deal with tubes. Now if Nelson could make that SIT amp 1 ohm stable to 500-1000 watts and charge $5k I would buy them.

But IMO the only real point of buying low power SS over a Tube amplifier is to avoid dealing with tubes.

I am fine buying an inferior sounding SS or class D - I kind of have to just trying to get a sound with as minimal SS sounding damage as possible. I suspect the Torroid transformer is a major culprit to bad sound since the SS ssssssssssss sound seems to go across numerous designs.

 

I have seen some reviews which seem to say the $1499 PS Audio sounds better than the $5000 Bel Canto so it seems like a good value in that sense. the 700 monoblocks are quite reasonable at $3k or so. Fortunately I know a dealer that has my preamp and also carries the following SS amplifiers: PS Audio, McIntosh, Anthem, Sim Audio, Rotel, Ayre and hey they picked up Line Magnetic - (Soundhounds) - I will take some credit for putting the dealer onto Line Magnetic as the price performance build quality look are all high.

I will be back in February for just under 2 weeks so I may try to audition the power amps with my preamp and speakers and more importantly with other speakers and see how it goes.

 

Have you listened extensively to any of the vintage VFET amps?

I can't comment on the sound of any SET amps as I've never heard one.

And while I have never heard ANY SS ever, that I would describe as sounding like ANY tube amp, and I do own a number of 7591, 7868, 6BQ5, 6973, amps and even a few other oddballs.
I do however own about 5 different vintage VFET amps.
And the sound of a vintage VFET is unlike any other SS amp I have ever heard.

 

I liked the old DR series from Classe, when David Reich was the designer, and I liked Mark Levinson, at the time of No. 23, and No. 27. Since then, I have been SET all the way.

 

Admit to being super lazy but my Mac1900 (1974) drives my Synthesis 250's (1989) fine and I have been happy for a long time... I have much more interest in more records than more equipment.

 

I'll tell you something - I rarely pay much attention to the design of the amplifier - I pay attention to the listening of the amps which is why I don't say tubes are better than SS or SET is king because I like some SS better than tubes.

As a reviewer what I am more looking at are "current" amplifiers that people reading my reviews can readily audition. Which is why I own the KEF LS-50. I don't love the KEF LS-50 but it is an easily auditioned speaker that sells in most cities worldwide. That is somewhat what I am looking for an in amp.

One factor why some vintage amps may sound better is that they use EI transformers instead of torroids.

 

Look at the JLH 1969 amps on Aliexpress, excellent.