Without knowing what your associated equipment is, it is a little hard to provide specific input. In general terms, though, I have never been as impressed with Audio Research solid state amps as with their tube amps. It always struck me (and it has been a couple years, admittedly,) that the SS gear was an attempt to broaden the product line and keep people who were former AR users (or fans) but wanted to switch to SS. The sound was far less musical than I had come to expect from AR.
I listen to a fairly wide range of music, and have found the Pass X series to be pretty impressive versus much more expensive gear. You can typically find the X-150 for about $2,500 on A-gon and occasionally get luckier. If you have heard and liked the recent Pass amps, IMHO you should probably also give a listen to Plinius - I was VERY surprised at how musical some of their amps are (again a used 100 is about $2,500)
Considering your preferred music, though, you might also consider a "more agressive" sounding amp like a used Krell. While I am not generally a Krell fan (never integrated well with my current or prior systems), I have to admit that they do sound pretty impressive with Metallica and pack a great SLAM on appropriate speakers . (One of my friends is a huge mettalica fan and set his system up around them - he went with Krell amps).
-j
I listen to a fairly wide range of music, and have found the Pass X series to be pretty impressive versus much more expensive gear. You can typically find the X-150 for about $2,500 on A-gon and occasionally get luckier. If you have heard and liked the recent Pass amps, IMHO you should probably also give a listen to Plinius - I was VERY surprised at how musical some of their amps are (again a used 100 is about $2,500)
Considering your preferred music, though, you might also consider a "more agressive" sounding amp like a used Krell. While I am not generally a Krell fan (never integrated well with my current or prior systems), I have to admit that they do sound pretty impressive with Metallica and pack a great SLAM on appropriate speakers . (One of my friends is a huge mettalica fan and set his system up around them - he went with Krell amps).
-j