What are the advantages to a Class A amp & what are the trade offs?

Once I listened to a Class A amp, many years ago, I never wanted to listen to anything else. Some of the older Class A amps used fans which increases your noise floor. The Sumo Gold I ran for a long time used to hit its thermal cutoffs in the summer so you’d lose a channel every once in a while and would have to shut it off until it cooled.

As I mentioned on other threads, I now own a Gryphon Colosseum stereo amp. I think it is one of the most beautiful amps I’ve ever seen and it doesn’t take up a lot of floor space because it is laid out vertically. It has two massive aluminum heat sinks.

What Class A amp are you considering?

“The attraction to class A is in the well founded belief that anything class AB can do, class A can do better. Class A is what every topology strives to measure up to, and class A can do things that are simply impossible with any other class, like giving you a rich, warm, organic, spacious sound; the result of lush, natural, even order distortion. ”

This is all I need to know and it is what my experience has been listening to Class AB amps vs Class A amps. I listen to music every day, I glance at my electricity bill once a month. :-)

I think people underestimate the amount of power required for the fast transients that typically occur in music, all the time in symphonic music. The Gryphon Colosseum can generate over 4000w instantaneously. It has two huge capacitors that can store 340,00microFarads. 

Low power amps have never done much for me. There is something about having a huge reservoir of power to draw on that makes musical reproduction so effortless. I don’t play at high decibel levels, I just like the clean and effortless sound I get from my 175lb Class A amp, lol.

It’s true, George. I think the extra electricity may come to $50 a month, maybe $70, if I listen a lot. It does annoy my wife sometimes but I try to calm her down by pointing out that we don’t own a car, lol, and save a lot of money that way.

People in New York burn $50 at Starbucks in a couple of weeks. I make my own coffee for fifty five cents a cup, I calculated the figure. So, skip Starbucks and listen to a Class A amp. 

@verdantaudio I’m glad Gryphon integrated two chimneys in the Colosseum, haha. The amp actually runs pretty cool on low bias, 30w Class A, because of the huge heatsinks, but it runs very hot at 165w Class A. Yes, I can hear a difference between the two.


 @mijostyn I will try that coffee. How much is it a pound? For those who wonder about my math to get to fifty five cents a cup it was $25/454g*10. I only use ten grams a day, that’s my dose.

@sfischer1 I own a Baratza Forté coffee grinder, a smart scale, and a programmable kettle. My coffee is pretty consistent from day to day. I watch my coffee to water ratio, you know. I use the Kalita pour over system, it’s simple and it works well. An app on my iPhone that pairs with the scale leads me through the steps and provides a timer.

Every office I’ve ever worked in has had atrocious coffee. I used to bring in my own beans and a little French press to make a fresh cup so I didn’t have to drink burned coffee or that awful Keurig stuff.

I don’t think a shared stereo works in the work environment. The most obnoxious people will blast crap all the time. Music is a personal choice, not a group one. I worked in one place where they blasted horrible dance music or Stevie Wonder. Stevie is cool, but every day, all day? I used to unplug that stupid speaker whenever I had the chance. We were all trying to listen to our own headphones anyway, nobody cared to listen to the house music. 

The Gryphon Colosseum allows me to select from three bias levels but it does not slide between one or the other automatically. Medium bias is 70w Class A. I think vocals sound absolutely amazing on this amp. 

We live in good times. We’ve got great gear options and an easy way to stream a huge amount of music.