Yeah, I think it has more to do with setting the bias based on the current requirements (as in amps) of the current situation (e.g. listening level and speaker load requirements). For many speakers and most listening conditions, a fully biased class A amp is just wasting power, but it's nice to have it in reserve.
I owned a pair of Krell MDA-300 monoblocks for a while that were room heaters. I think these were made in the days when Krell class A amps were fully biased. I replaced these with an FPB-300 (which used the plateau biasing technology) which I owned for more than 20 years. There was a couple years separating my ownership of these amps, as well as different speakers, so I never really got a chance to directly compare them, but they were both excellent amps.
I don't think I would hesitate (at least from an SQ perepective) to buy one of the newer D'Agostino designed Krells (not sure about the ones after he left). I finally got rid of mine after it failed for a second time with bad caps and it was more expensive to recap it then it was worth. In hind-sight, I wish I had kept it and done the work myself since I've recently gotten into doing a lot of DIY audio electronics.
I owned a pair of Krell MDA-300 monoblocks for a while that were room heaters. I think these were made in the days when Krell class A amps were fully biased. I replaced these with an FPB-300 (which used the plateau biasing technology) which I owned for more than 20 years. There was a couple years separating my ownership of these amps, as well as different speakers, so I never really got a chance to directly compare them, but they were both excellent amps.
I don't think I would hesitate (at least from an SQ perepective) to buy one of the newer D'Agostino designed Krells (not sure about the ones after he left). I finally got rid of mine after it failed for a second time with bad caps and it was more expensive to recap it then it was worth. In hind-sight, I wish I had kept it and done the work myself since I've recently gotten into doing a lot of DIY audio electronics.