I'm coming late to this thread, but as the owner of a Linear A (and the writer of one of the more ecstatic reviews of it) I thought I'd chime in.
I think Boy_lah hit the nail on the head. The Linear A emphatically does not sound like a traditional SET amp. In particular it's faster, more transparent, resolving and dynamic. We all know that those characteristics are a double-edged sword, and usually lead to a better sonic than musical presentation. One man's "lush" is another man's "turgid", though. Our perceptions in this area are heavily influenced by our mental wiring, particularly our expectations and what we have been listening to recently.
As the owner of an Audion Silver Night MkII PX25 and a pair of Wavelength Triton 300B's in addition to the Linear A I'm in a position to have experienced the effects of expectation and exposure firsthand. I'd been listening to the PX25 for a long time when the LA arrived, and in comparison the PX25 the LA was like opening a door into a whole new world of physical realism. After I'd listened to the LA exclusively for a couple of months I went back to the PX25 and found a mized bag of impressions. Yes it was richer, and more relaxing to listen to. But balancing that pleasure was a sense that the music had slowed down, and that many of the subtleties of the musical event had gone missing. The musical excitement of the Linear A was replaced by a more gentle, atmospheric quality. And I definitely noticed the loss of frequency extension and dynamics. There seemed to be an extra layer of something betweeen me and the music that robbed it of much of its visceral liveness.
On balance, the presentation you will prefer depends on how and why you listen to music, and your value-set in the rest of your life. For me, clarity, physical palpability, life and drive are very important. Much of the emotional value in a musical performance is carried by the subtleties of the players' phrasing, performance and presentation, and the better I can hear that, the more impact it makes. To me, this is of far greater musical significance than the (admittedly seductive) richness of a traditional large-plate SET.
I am never selling my SET amps, though. It's nice to be able to change the music so completely when the mood strikes, secure in the knowledge that both presentations are good, and for extremely large values of "good" into the bargain.
I think Boy_lah hit the nail on the head. The Linear A emphatically does not sound like a traditional SET amp. In particular it's faster, more transparent, resolving and dynamic. We all know that those characteristics are a double-edged sword, and usually lead to a better sonic than musical presentation. One man's "lush" is another man's "turgid", though. Our perceptions in this area are heavily influenced by our mental wiring, particularly our expectations and what we have been listening to recently.
As the owner of an Audion Silver Night MkII PX25 and a pair of Wavelength Triton 300B's in addition to the Linear A I'm in a position to have experienced the effects of expectation and exposure firsthand. I'd been listening to the PX25 for a long time when the LA arrived, and in comparison the PX25 the LA was like opening a door into a whole new world of physical realism. After I'd listened to the LA exclusively for a couple of months I went back to the PX25 and found a mized bag of impressions. Yes it was richer, and more relaxing to listen to. But balancing that pleasure was a sense that the music had slowed down, and that many of the subtleties of the musical event had gone missing. The musical excitement of the Linear A was replaced by a more gentle, atmospheric quality. And I definitely noticed the loss of frequency extension and dynamics. There seemed to be an extra layer of something betweeen me and the music that robbed it of much of its visceral liveness.
On balance, the presentation you will prefer depends on how and why you listen to music, and your value-set in the rest of your life. For me, clarity, physical palpability, life and drive are very important. Much of the emotional value in a musical performance is carried by the subtleties of the players' phrasing, performance and presentation, and the better I can hear that, the more impact it makes. To me, this is of far greater musical significance than the (admittedly seductive) richness of a traditional large-plate SET.
I am never selling my SET amps, though. It's nice to be able to change the music so completely when the mood strikes, secure in the knowledge that both presentations are good, and for extremely large values of "good" into the bargain.