Should I buy a Class A Amp.


I would Love to buy a Class A Amp. I have a Sony Tan-80ES Amp right now and I have had it for 19 yrs. To me it sounds Great but I am curious about Class A Amps. Do they really sound better? I am looking at a Krell KSA 200 Amp right now for $2000.00. It is older then my Sony. Is this too much for such an old Amp? Would Love to hear members thoughts on this.  

Blessings, ..........Don.
donplatt

I agree with earlier posters that there are a number of factors affecting the sound of amps, including the speaker load, how loud you listen, and a vast number of factors in the amp design itself.  And you have to remember that most Class AB amps run full Class A until they reach a certain output level when they begin switching into Class AB, and then further up the output curve they switch into Class B.  If you have sensitive speakers and/or easy loads, your current amp (no pun intended) may already be running in Class A.

The old Class A dreadnaughts of which the Krell KSA series is one, along with Mark Levinson, Threshold, NRG Control, and others were primarily designed to run Class A into low sensitivity speakers with difficult loads like some Thiels and planar and ribbon speakers like Apogees and SoundLabs.  Nelson Pass of Threshold and now Pass Labs says you can really tell whether an amp is running true Class A by its weight as the required massive transformers and heatsinks weigh a lot.  As previously stated, Class A amps have all of their output devices running full-out all the time and divert all output into heat and the speaker load.  As the volume output increases they divert more of the current into the speaker load and less into heat.  However, these monster amps may not have necessarily sounded the best, especially when they were only outputting small amounts into the speaker load and mostly into heat.

IMO, the use of Class A does not always guarantee the best sound, especially since "sound" is largely subjective.  Perhaps if you have a difficult load this might be true more times than not, but if it were me I would listen to some different designs with good reputations like those mentioned previously.  I use some esoteric equipment by Essence that came in Class A and Class AB designs and I liked the Class AB presentation better.  The Class A monoblocks used a more massive power supply and the sound was more robust and had more bass weight.  The Class AB stereo amp was much faster, transparent, and had a more prominent and extended treble, which was a better match with my speakers.

Good luck.

I have heard great AB amps and great A amps.  From my understanding a class A is an inherently better circuit but the implementation is what also makes a difference.

i currently run a Boulder 2060 amp.  If you look it up, it's a class A beast and I have not had anything as good.  I had a class AB Classe m600 and also heard a class AB rotel 1590... Nowhere close.
I Thank all of you for your Responses. I should tell you that I have Eminent 8B Speakers. 83db @ 8 Ohmns. 

.........Don.
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I've had my Levinson 20.6's for almost 25 years and would never even consider selling. Have heard a lot of other amplifiers but none of them would make me retire the 20.6's. So I would be the last to tell you to steer away from Class A amps. 

However, older amplifiers can cost a lot of money to service. Caps, diodes, trim pots and transistors can go bad after 20 plus years and it's not uncommon to get estimates in the $1000 to $2500 range to diagnose and repair vintage Krell, Levinson, Threshold, etc. 

Is Class A the best design? Look at it this way: no preamplifier designer would ever build anything other than Class A. The only reason that power amplifiers aren't all Class A is because the dollar to watt ratio is too high and the maximum power is usually limited to around 100 wpc.