Affordable SS amp that has tube characteristics


I have been listening to tubes for a few years now but I do run 2 systems and I want one to be a higher powered SS system. I have a bad habit of turning the stereo on and leaveing it on all day and sometimes leaveing the house and not commeing home for hours and leaving the system on.
I listen to a wide array of music from soft female vocals to hard chargeing Rock and Roll. I do more of the mellow stuff though maybe 80% of the time.
My room is not that big,17X19 and my speakers are a little large for the room,Aerial 10T's. They are not going anywhere I love the way they sound and they are one of the few speakers that I have heard that sound just as good at very low volume as they do at higher volumes.
My current set up is an ARC VT 100 MKIII,ARC LS15 ARC CD3 and I use a Sonos for computer audio and PS Audio DLIII.
I also Have an ARC LS25MKII but I think the LS15 sounds better in this set up.
I have been wanting to use a SS amp here just because the time this system is on and in the summer the heat build up is so bad.
I hear class A mosfets is the way to go to get the tube sound but trying to find something affordable that is large enough to drive the Aerials is where the challenge lies. Yes I would love to have a large Pass Labs amp but they are not in the budget and neither is a Krell amp. I have been thinkng about a Belles amp but most are class AB and then I have to wonder if the Belles Ref 150 would be big enough to drive the Aerials or if I would need sometrhing like the ref 350.
Any have any suggestions on an amp that might fit the bill.
coman61

Showing 4 responses by coman61

Yogiboy, that does look like what I'm looking for but not sure that seller wants to ship and I just had a very bad experiece with UPS. I'm guessing he does not have a factory box.
Budget is about 3500. I should have mentioned that I have tried Aragon and McCormick amps. They were both OK but not as warm as I would have liked. FWIW of the 2 I like the Aragon the best. The Classe may be something to look into.
Just re read, he will ship but non factory packing...IDK about that. UPS no longer pays claims on vintage electronics......ASK HOW I KNOW :-(
I got some Power Modules Belles MB-01 mono blocks. They seem to fit the bill. 75W of pure class A. They get hot as hell but man do they sound good for not being fully broke in yet. I also had to remove the Audio Research LS 25 out of the system. It was to accurte,clinical,uncolored, and just down rite boreing. For now a Mcintosh MX 117 has preamp duty till I can afford something else. The Mcintosh adds some color and mellos it out pretty nicely.