Transients hurting my ears on hifi solid state amps

I work from home, and I listen between 8 and 12 hours a day, though most of that is not critical listening.  I am also sensitive to "bright" components.  I currently have 3 turntables, a Herron VTPH-2A phono preamp, and a BAT VK-30SE preamp.  On the digital side, I have a Node 2i and a NAD 5000 CD player, both running into an SMSL VMV D1SE.  My speakers are Magnepan 1.7i.  I can listen all day to any source without fatigue.  I can make a recommendation of a class AB amp that would work for you within your budget.

I'm currently using a Bryston 4B SST2.  I find it fatigue free.  If you're lucky, you might be able to get one used under 2k.  However, the 3B SST2 used should be well within your price range, and buying one used, there should be a significant portion of the 20 year warranty left on it.  You should be able to use your current integrated as a preamp and run the pre outs to the external amp.

I have concerns that any of these amplifiers will properly drive your speakers which are 4 ohm and recommend 40-200 watts to drive them. I had suggested in an earlier post that Class A might solve your problem, but sole focus on Class A at the expense of the necessary power depth might result in a less engaging system. 

Thanks for your research. That could indeed be an issue. My theory was that underpowering the speakers to some extent might ensure a softer sound with less of this to me transient-related problems. I also know that power rating is not everything and that tube amps, and to a somewhat lesser extent class A amps, are more powerful that what their rating tells us.

I use my PrimaLuna almost exclusively in triode mode, which is 25W and I enjoy the sound and there's weight and power to the sound in general and bass in particular. However, I do miss things that the more powerful amps could do detail retrieval, projecting the sound into the room and soundstage. The ultralinear mode, which gives you 42W, improves objectively on these aspects, but there's a magic and to me a more engaging sound that comes with the triode mode that I miss and I always end up going back that mode.

I also don't necessarily consider these to be speakers that will be with me for many years to come, so I could accept having an amp that isn't a perfect match for a while until I have the budget to upgrade the speakers.

However, I would like to be at least not limited to low-powered amplifier. One of my main worries is that as you go up to better amplifiers, the power rating usually goes up too, class A (and tubes) being the exception. I still struggle to identify amplifiers that could work for me irrespective of their power rating and any help on this is welcome.

class AB solid state amps with high bias to class A

Does this simply mean amps where after X watts, it switches from A to AB? This type of amplifier could be a great solution and the Arcam, even though I had issues with it, had something that I really enjoyed and it used what they call class G, but is basically A/AB in my understanding. I'm trying to stretch my budget, but the Coda is quite expensive, especially when factoring in the preamp cost, and I would prefer an integrated. Are there any other suggestions for this type of amps?

I can make a recommendation of a class AB amp that would work for you within your budget. I'm currently using a Bryston 4B SST2.  I find it fatigue free.

Thanks for sharing, great setup and great amp. If going the separates route, I'd unfortunately also need a preamp and I mentioned I would like the ease of use of an integrated, or at least be able to control the power amp (on/off/standby) from the preamp. The amp does seem smooth, especially in the treble, but when I read things in reviews such as "The piano notes were sharply defined", The bass notes from the drum kit struck quickly or "the cymbals for the drum kit sounded sharp", I worry if this amp would be work for me in terms of this "transient" issue that I'm fixated on. Again, I find it hard to identify the amps that work for me based on reviews, specs and measurements.

I get fatigue very easily if the gear is fatiguing or the room is fatiguing. I would check you room first to see if you have too much sound waves banging around in there. 

If you room passes that test and you still have fatigue then it is your gear. I have tried a lot of gear recently and the most relaxing and smooth gear has been the new Class A KRELL XD amps. I do not think you can get fatigue from this gear, as much as I have tried.

The KRELL K-300i integrated is amazing. I sold it to buy the KRELL DUO 175XD. I am going to sell or trade-in that 175XD for a more powerful XD amp. If you can find a K-300i jump on it. I spoke to a KRELL dealer recently and he said the K-300i integrated is selling extremely well. I also owned the CODA CSiB and preferred the KRELL K-300i (smoother).

My issue now is that I listen to way too much music. Not sure how long my ears will last at this rate. For example, yesterday I started at 8:30AM and finished at 2:30AM. The last 5 hours were with headphones.

No fatigue at all. I used to get a lot of fatigue before I sorted out my room acoustics and gear. It was mostly the room causing fatigue with my 2-channel and the gear for my headphones. I now use the KRELL amp(s) for both.

Get an air purifier and take some allergy medicine stat !