SS amp or receiver that sounds like Tube Amp


I picked up an Onkyo TX-2500 MKII that sounded like my tube amp. I was actually stunned. Any other and hopefully newer SS gear sounds like a quality tube amp? Tube amps usually have a natural sound and lots of detail with high clarity.

jimbennet

Showing 1 response by deltasigma

FirstWatt, from Nelson Pass, sells two current solid-state amplifiers based on static induction transistors: the stereo SIT-4 (10W into 8Ω, 5W into 4Ω; note reduced output into lower impedance) and the SIT-5 monoblocks (35W into 8Ω, 60W into 4Ω). Both are class A and dissipate a lot of heat, but provide an extraordinary tube-like sound. To quote Nelson, they're:

emulating the characteristic of a Triode, but operating at voltage and currents directly needed by loudspeakers, eliminating the output transformer. ... As with Triodes, the characteristic curves of the SIT allow operation on Class A “load lines" that can determine the relative values of second and third order harmonics and have little in the way of higher order distortion. It is a now a common observation that the most appealing sound tends to come from a dominant second order harmonic character followed by a lesser values of higher order harmonics.

You can read more about SITs here, and check out the glowing reviews like this one (SIT-4) and this one (SIT-5).