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Silicon Under 60, Slim Pickings?

I bought a tube amplifier because lower wattage SS amps are hard pickings. I'm driving FAL Flat Supreme S Speakers. 95db, 8W min tubes, 50W SS, max 60W

As daily driver a custom 8W Triode Lab EL84 amplifier, the sole valve amp I've liked(more assertive than the mean) ; however I'm thinking of returning to the silicon camp. My speakers are craving power and me a more tactile sound. I'm not a fan of the romanticism of tubes nor sand hardware voiced the same for that matter. Timbre top priority, sound-staging last.

The recent developments in Class-D have caught my attention but I feel left out; were I to mate a pair of 400W monos with my speakers there would be fireworks, no? What options do I have without exceeding 60w? My system is in a state of upheavel so I'm looking at anything between power amps to fully integrated DAC/Integrated. Perhaps a full Exogal Comet/Ion system but I'm concerned about the wattage again. That should give an idea of my absolute max budget wise. 3.5-4K Less is more.
redfuneral

Showing 2 responses by timrhu

timrhu
2,779 posts
 
My favorite low powered SS amp is the Cairn 4808A; 30 watts with the first ten in class A. These amps are older and hard to find and mine died just a few weeks ago :(

If I can't get it repaired, and it's not looking likely, I'd like to try one of the Pass Labs amps.
timrhu
2,779 posts
 
I owned a the Bel Canto eVo integrated tri-path amp years ago and liked it quite a bit. I sold it to move to the newer class d amp with the ICE modules. None of them had what I hear as "tube" sound. And the newer ICE amps are even further from my idea of tube sound.
If you want clean sound to the point of sterility, get one of the newer versions by either Bel Canto or Wyred 4 Sound. I owned Wyred's new mAMP for a while. The sound was just not meaty enough for my taste so I sold it. The amp presented everything in proper order, but came across as soulless.
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