??? WHY WHY WHY ??? Class A vs Everything Else

I have a totally unique class a integrated amplifier hand made in ITALY 

Pathos Audio. Their Top inpol class a has its own very unique patent

it takes the 12au7 tubes and amplifies this as part of the signal path 

the 12ax7 tubes to a lesser extent mainly for the preamp section 

for a 45wpc -8 ohms, 70wpc 4 ohms and 86 lbs it’s a beautiful to look at and 

sounds like a SET AMP WITH SS detail and control , using vintage nose RCA ,as well as AMPEREX  tubes it sounds well above $11800 price point , the preamp section 1% or better resistor ladder and relay control preamp section 

this INPOL2-MK-2= integrated  from Upscale Audio is a true DUAL mono design just sharing a power cord at 86 lbs a totally unique design using 6 Big MOSFETS per channel on the outputs . I actually sold these while in the U.K 20 years ago this NEW Mk2  even more so good for speakers 89db or better 4 ohm even more current I use a very good AQ HURRICAINE power cord to a dedicated line all FURUTECH CONNECTORS .  A NICE CHANGE OF PACE IT DRIVES THE FOCAL SOPRA-2 Loudspeakers very nicely I may be trying the QUALIO ULTRA LOUDSPEAKERS TO COMPARE TO  FROM OUR AUDIO CLUB . 

WITH AUDIO ITS ALWAYS SOMETHING NEW!!

It may just be jumping ahead a few years in amp design, but my two Pass Labs XA30.8 and the two X260.8 (monos)  in a tri-amped configuration never come out of class A.  And my rig has never sounded better.  Yes I have pushed it to very loud and the meters have yet to move an iota!   Headroom baby! That's where its at.

Regards,

barts

Wow put it in in storage at a friends or similar, it’s not big equipment won’t take a lot of room and then you won’t have to spend pages of a long story for a simple issue.

Cheers 

More like taking the Bentley on the school run.

I think of Class A similar to driving my car with the gas to the floor, and using the brake to control my speed.

Class A has positive attributes but you do give up stuff like high power often needed by some speakers and of course there's the heat. Like the real world it's different compromises which vary with your taste in sound and your system.

By the way you often see reviewers citing a preamp is class A. It means they don't know how preamps are designed. All preamps are class A because it's easy on a differential preamp since there's so little current involved. And single ended preamps have to be class A: their topology can only be class A.

I might add that as above all single ended amps are class A. But almost every push/pull class A amp eventually goes into class B at very high output. And the class A portion goes down with lower output impedance for solid state amps. The only exception I know is the old Mark Levenson ML2 amp which doubled power down to at least 2 ohms and remained in class A. And it was the biggest 25 watt amp I've ever seen.