Class A amplifiers


I was watching YouTube reviews on Hifi and one guy said if you like Class A amps you have to accept that every 3 or 4 years you have to send them in to get serviced Becasue the heat inevitably causes issues? Is this true? I have a friend with an older Maek Levinson Class A amp and he was looking to sell,it to me, and am just wondering if Class A amps are like a boat, always costing you more . Anyone?
bear1971

Showing 1 response by terry9

As others have mentioned, it depends.

All Class A run warm. Many run hot. Some run so hot that they dry out the electrolytic capacitors.

Solution: don't run them hot, use electrolytic caps only in the power supply, and isolate those caps from the heat sinks. Personally, I run the amplifiers' heat sinks at comfortably warm and the power supply at room temperature in a separate rack in another room. That's a bit extreme - but not as extreme as George!