Transitioning: back to solid state....

OK, I'm a bit confused here....so it seems you're frustrated with the idea of the 'maitenance' of having a tube amp. It seems like the only issue was biasing, and the cost of tubes as per your initial post. Yet you are looking for an SS amp that will give you a 'tube-sound'...or rather a tube-lovers SS amp?! You say you have speakers that are specifically geared towards tubes, but have not specified what those might be. I assume they are the Tannoy monitors, which you comment in your system profile that you LOVE. So the SS thing is purely a convenience-driven decision...yes? There are fine auto-biasing tube amplifiers that you might consider as an alternative. I don't know about your financial priorities or funds available, but it looks like you've invested in some pretty nice gear thus far. As long as you stick to used gear, you can buy and sell to your hearts content and not loose a significant amount of $ in the process (that's the grease that keeps Audiogon going isn't it?). Why not look into the tube alternatives since your known preference occurs to me in the realm of tubes (I am only inferring this by the tone of your posts)? Learning how to bias an amp sure isn't rocket science, and good tubes are pretty stable for the most part. I check my bias once a week on my work system that requires biasing, but for the amount of times I actually tweak the bias, it might as well be once a month. My 300B SET's are auto-biasing and are of the most amazing sounding amps I've ever heard. I'm not knocking SS, but my preference is clearly with tubes and I doubt I'll change. For me it's worth what small hassle it may bring, and I actually enjoy the little tweaks and changes and challenges. On another note, 30 hours doesn't occur to me as enough to break in a brand new SS amp (I'm assuming it's new since you are implying a break-in period). Give it more like 300 hours and then see what it sounds like. This stuff is supposed to be fun! If you don't like it, sell it and try something different. It's all about personal preferences, space, sound and synergy. The best you can do here is get only a hint at the latter.

This would open up a whole other can of worms for you, but here goes: One other thing you may want to try before you sell your CA50 is to put a good pre-amp between it and your source (you said you were using it direct). Even though many players have either digital or analogue volume controls, some are just not as good as others and you may be experiencing some degradation in that link (especially if it is a digital volume control - I don't know much about the Meridian DAC in your system). Yet another consideration would be to consider sending your ARC to Steve Huntley (formerly with ARC and Wadia) over at Great Northern Sound. He does extensive upgrading to ARC gear which I can personally reccomend. I had him do his standard upgrade on my ARC LS2B and it was worth every penny! He also works on Wadia and other makes as well. Their URL is www.greatnorthernsound.com. I guess you can tell, I'm just too big a fan of tube sound to give up on the idea of letting go of a good thing (though I can't say I've heard the CA50 I somehow doubt is is any slouch). It seems to me you have to pay a significant amount more $ in SS to try to achieve a similar sound. If you leave your amp on occasionally and shorten the tube life you'd be putting some of those $ towards that habbit...but you'd have that wonderful holographic tube sound, and no regrets! If you think about it the average power tube lasts around 5-10K hours depending on how hard you drive them. If you left your amp on every day for 12 hours a day that's a minimum of 416 days of life. That's over a year before you have to replace your tubes given your habit of leaving your amp on. Needless to say, I determined that small investment was worth it to me, and my amps at work stay on most of the day all day. I just hate to see you give up on tubes so easily!

Ohala makes a very good point. Again, I don't know much about your Meridian DAC & Transport other than it is an older model, but the golden rule that Ohala is indirectly referring to: "Garbage In = Garbage Out"...it doesn't matter what you use to amplify it. Just the fact that the Meridian is a eight year-old 18 bit DAC tells me that there is probably (much more) room for some improvement there, far more than in changing your amp. Ohala is also right on the money regarding scientific methods and stats (you crack me up there Ohala!) - Your two ears are the best gauge in making judgments here....Use 'The Force' Viggen!

Sorry Viggen, I too somehow got the idea your CA50 was a power-amp and not integrated. My bad. This has become a pretty lengthy thread so I guess I missed that detail. I still stand by everything else I've offered thus far, especially the idea that you'll make a more significant improvement changing your top-end than you will changing your amp. Also, take things said here, as well as on AudioAsylum with a grain...or rather a bag of salt! Again, personal preferences, your listening room and your system synergy is going to make all the difference, and only you are the best judge of all those factors together. But there is certainly much to be gained from paying attention to the experience of others in a broader sense. My ARC LS2B (GNS modified) sounds fabulous with the push/pull amps in my work system. But it sounds too analytical when combined with my SET amps in my home system - there I much prefer my Cary SLP-50A (which in turn does not sound as good in my work system). I'm going to contradict myself here, but the single BEST improvement I've made in over twenty years of this addiction we share, was going from SS to tubes. The most profound component improvement though, was in swapping out my digital top-end to a Muse transport/DAC combo (which is still giving me much pleasure even though it is outdated at this point). That is followed closely by moving from Pentode and push/pull tube amps, to 300B SET amps (Audio Nirvana for me!). This is why I encourage you not to give up the tubes so readily. You could probably spend less than a semester's of that tuition money on an all-in-one or transport/dac combo which will take your system to a whole other level of listening pleasure. I like the Muse gear, but there are many alternatives from the likes of BAT, Cary, Audio Aero, Audio Note as well as others....well, there's a whole other thread topic there!

Yes, I think Steve (Huntley) is pretty swamped over there at times, and neglects follow-ups (or just doesn't have the time). I had a similar experience trying to ask a few questions and really had to keep trying. All I can say is that the mod was worth it to me, and Steve is a really nice guy to talk to and clearly knows his stuff. He did get the mod done on time too. You're right about the mod being a significant investment that you will likely not get much of back, unless you happen to get lucky. I guess that's the trade-off. I went with the $725 standard mod and it definitely made a big difference to my ears. It included an IEC bay and allowed me to use a premium power cord too. You can drop quite a bit more cash at GNS to get some pretty trick mods done. Well, good luck with the solid state....I hope you find what you're looking for!