pass labs
agd
hegel
i do not miss tubes... i myself am very surprised to hear myself say that...after all these years knee deep in audio research, cj, vac and so on...
Selling off Tubes for Solid State, A Cooler Love Story?
I've always sought out Primaluna gear as my end all be all gear. I started with an integrated, then went to separates and have been very, very happy. What has given me such good sound, is also causing the room temperature to be somewhat annoying. Being in a little shoe box room of 10x15, I've had to result to opening a window, which is becoming tiresome.
The heat from just the KT88's is causing me to considering going solid state, which will be in preparation for the Summer in my tiny upstairs room. I'd like to possibly get a second amp for the summer months, but am not sure where to start with solid state amps. Do I pick up a BHK? Do I go all in on a used Ypsilon or Dartzeel? What did you look for in a solid state amp and where should I look? I BHK I could test drive at home, but a used Ypsilon I wouldn't able able to try and would just have to pull the trigger. Any advice or guidance is appreciated.
Showing 5 responses by jjss49
as many experienced hands have noted, modern solid state amps at the upper tier use various technologies and techniques to produce a sound that gives the best of both perhaps the most articulate among the makers is nelson pass, who describes how he and his crew dial in small, desired amounts of even order harmonic distortion into their amps to provide that tubey goodness our ears crave in reproduced music -- all the while producing the tuneful, deep, taut, powerful bass that can only be approximated by the tippy top massive tube amps well made, powerful class a amps do the same, as does alberto at agd with his brilliant take on ga-n tech - now, powerful class a stuff still produces a good amount of heat, but there are no tubes to replace, bias, burn out, and so on a really wonderful time to be in this hobby |
just my 2 cents i would say, qualitatively, that if comparing to running my audio research ref 110 tube amp (8x kt120), if we call the heat output from that amp a '10' a decent powered solid state class a amp - say pass xa25, first watt f5, belles sa30, pair of schiit aegirs would have heat output of say, a '6' whereas a higher powered class a/b amp like hegel h20 would be a '3' and then, the agd audion monos would be a '1' |
the linear tube audio zotl reference 40 tube amp is worth mentioning in this discussion https://www.lineartubeaudio.com/products/zotl-40-reference-amplifier a very special amp in that it uses the berning circuit, without output transformers and runs its 4x el34’s at a very modest biasing, thus very moderate heat (much less overall in my experience than a pass or belles class a ss amp, for instance) the amp has a wonderful, sparkling clarity, speed and impact rarely found in tube power amps, kind of a ying to the primaluna’s yang in sonic attributes - but with all the midrange and imaging magic we expect from tubes (not to mention that w/o transformers, it is light as a feather... :) |
@jbhiller is also right to bring attention to the lovely carver 275 wonderful amp in many ways, moderate heat output (more than the lta but a good amount less than the primaluna with half the # of power tubes) - it is also a tube amp that is very easy with tubes, leading to extraordinarily long life in use there is something very right about how this crimson 275 amp presents the music, especially into higher efficiency speakers |