"Warm Sounding" Solid State Amplifiers

i see! it was actually aimed at you inadvertently.... ;-) LOL!

Pontifex,
I'm pretty stupid so I don't understand what you mean by "warmth, sweetness and overall pleasant sound."??
I've tracked this thread over the several days it's been active & I see a lot of chatter & recommendations. it's great to see that so many members want to help but you'll always get a recommendation of a particular amp from a person who has that amp - it's inevitable. The problem is that you don't know this person (despite the fact that he is really trying to help for which I can see you are rightly appreciative) & you don't know his music tastes & you don't have his ears & neither do you have his music listening room. So, there are too many variables for you to blindly accept the recommendation.

It would be great for us to know what you mean by "warmth, sweetness and overall pleasant sound." as it will help all of us provide better direction.

From his vast experience, Ralph @ Atmasphere, as usual, has given you some wise words to reflect on. As Ralph has already pointed out - "warm" & "bright" are 2 different forms of distortion; one preferred & the other not. But make no mistake, they are forms of distortion. I don't think you want to spend money on an amp that distorts - long-term this is the wrong way to go about your goal.
I dont agree fully with Ralph that *all* SS amps are high on distortion - there are many that are not but it is true that these few amps are not cheap. There are some less expensive SS amps that are very linear sounding but, yes, they're few & far between. In terms of linearity, tubes does win more often than not since our human ears prefer even order harmonics over odd order harmonics. So, it's not a totally losing game indulging in SS amps. Of course, my opinion & my experience.

You've already provided a list of your equipment & also your budget. Do let us know what you mean by "warmth, sweetness and overall pleasant sound." as it means different things to different people. Thanks.

04-22-15: Geoffkait
Tubes are less distorted when you listen to them. That's my consensus.

I disagree Geoffkait. Tubes have more pleasing distortion than SS. Both SS & tube s can be made linear.
And a "consensus" is a collective opinion. So, are you saying that 3 of you & yourself & your alter-ego collectively endorse tubes?? ;-) ;-)

Csontos,
Sabai didn't turn it at all - what he wrote was his opinion based on his listening experience. Maybe he'll update it if he does listening to a wider variety of amps & maybe he won't?? Either case as far as I'm concerned he's OK to voice it here in this forum.

Seems like Zd542 has a very similar opinion as I do.....

Pontiflex,
Thanks for the feedback.
Great that you made the effort to listen to some Pass amps. Yes, they are MOSFET output stage amps (as opposed to bipolar) & I believe that also has something to do with the sonics that you heard given that MOSFETs are a square-law semiconductor device.
See if the dealer will allow you an in-home demo - that would seal the deal for you in terms of confirming whether or not you want to save up for Pass amps going forward.

Thanks for the correction Unsound.
I didn't forget Forte when I wrote that post. My time-frame must have started when Pass & Threshold + Forte coexisted for some time & in my mind Pass Labs was the upmarket brand with Threshold & Forte following suit in that order of target market segment....

What I hear with live music is sound that is really relaxed. It may get loud, but even when it does, there is no "cringe" factor. I think most audiophiles would be put off with this kind of "relaxation" in their home systems.

not me anymore!! I've learnt that this is the sound that I want from my system & it will be capable of delivering such a sound when I will find components that will keep the phase distortion down to a minimum. That's the reason I turned to 1st order x-over speakers which, when built correctly, are time-coherent speakers & finding electronics that is as true to the original sound as my budget could afford. Having had such an experience you find me endorsing time-coherent speakers every time I can. I've managed to FINALLY sway a few people on this forum that time-coherent speakers is the way to go after THEY heard time-coherent in THEIR system & agreed with that it was the only way to proceed.
Getting an amplifier that is as uncoloured as possible i.e. within one's budget is the right thing to do because an an accurate system will always be a true system long-term.

Try sitting down in front of a good unamplified string quartet, or a solo classical guitar, or a front row seat right in front of the string section of a full classical orchestra sometime. Its like a breath of fresh air.

AMEN!!
That's because there is no phase distortion from the electronics & esp. the speakers. What you are hearing are the fundamental tones + their harmonics directly from the various instruments with no electronics to muck that up. Such a delivery of sonics is *always* welcome & will *always* sound right not matter what the person's age.

Pontiflex,
if you like the Pass amps that much, it just might be worth your time to look into getting a Threshold amp. These were essentially Pass amps but marketed & sold by Threshold which was a down-market brand compared to a Pass. My brother used to own a T200 (100W/ch pure class-A amp) & i personally thought that it sounded really very good on all his music.
Another pure class-A amp i've liked is the Plinius SA-250Mk4 & it's smaller cousin the SA-100 Mk2 (I think i.e. re. the Mk number). The Plinius amps has a class-A toggle switch meaning that you can run the amp in pure class-A or toggle the switch & run it in class-AB. The Sa-100 plenty of current delivery capacity to drive most speakers & the SA-240 will drive practically any speaker.
FWIW.