Vote for best US made solid state amp

Pass Aleph series. I have the Pass Aleph 3. Musical and true.

I have owned just about every so-called audiophile out there. I recently tried the LAMM 1.1 amp and sold my Levinson 33 monoblocks and my Spectral amps. In my opinion nothing even comes close. I have stopped my hunt for the perfect amp because I have found it.

Anything by Spectral?? May you spend you life listening to a DMA-50. M-360's certainly are in the running. Threshold went out of business for a reason, and by the way, Nelson Pass's next great design will be his fisrt. Ditto for Dan D'Augustio at Krell - their best amp was years ago and Dan did not design it. David Hafler has done some nice work with various helpers including Bongorno formerly of G.A.S. Levinson the man is again unemployed in the audio world as he well should be. John Curl, Charlie Hansen, and Jeff Rowland are all in the team photo. By default then, the M-360's from Spectral. But rather than be patriotic about it, I would rather save the money and listen to the latest version of the Plinius 250. Near enough to the very, very best in solid state and a bargain by the price standards of the industry.

Clayton Audio amps. I had Quad USA monitors and Gradient subs and was using a Conrad Johnson tube amp to drive the Quads and Clayton M-40's to drive the subs because of their superb control. Then one day, don't ask me why, I tried using the solid-state Claytons on the Quads. I sold the CJ's without ever hooking them back up. Now don't get me wrong - I love tube gear, especially Conrad Johnson, but this little solid state wonder was more musical in what is traditionally tube-only territory: Quads. I haven't heard M-70 monoblocks, probably even better.

This is not a cut-and-dried issue. The higher the definition an amp is, at this extreme would be Spectral, there is more chance at some dryness. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the "musical" sounding amp; a musical amp will, of necessity, be lacking in that last bit of detail. You don't get something for nothing! A good "musical" sounding amp is the Plinius SA-250. Personally, I have a Spectral DMA-200; this amp, when mated with the Spectral DMC-20 preamp, is a hard combo to beat. It is lightning fast, surgical, but can have just a hint of dryness depending on the matching equipment. To me, with a neutral sounding speaker and the right cables, Spectral is it.