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"Warm Sounding" Solid State Amplifiers

As a Canadian I am naturally a huge fan of Bryston products but not long ago I switched things up for a NAD C355BEE integrated amp and instantly realized what I had been missing in terms of warmth, sweetness and overall pleasant sound.

I'm interested in moving up from there into some Class A or A/B amps but I don't know of any other warm sounding Solid State amps other than Pass Labs which are out of my price range at the moment.

Tubes are obviously "where it's at" as they would say but the maintenance factor is somewhat of a deterrent for me. Should I just go for an M series NAD amp or is there another intermediate product between that and Pass Labs??
pontifex
lrsky
1,118 posts
 
With no mention of price range I'm at a loss.
We can't really compare NAD with Bryston, imho. NAD is wonderful gear, but not in the same league as Bryston.
Then someone suggested Rowland. Rowland is magical gear, but the price of entry may be, again, prohibitive.
A used McIntosh SS would have a smooth sweet midrange.
Where to start, price wise.
Larry
mesch
3,417 posts
 
You might want to check into a Vincent Audio integrated amp.
the_rang
41 posts
 
Modwright
abrew19
146 posts
 
Just a thought here. If you covet Pass Labs but find even the used ones to be out of your price range, see if you can snag a good used Forte model 4 or 1a for cheap. I owned a model 1a for a short time before I went all in on a new Pass and I was very impressed by the Forte amp. It was a sweet sounding little amp. But since they would be quite old you need to get it for a good price to allow for recapping if it needs it.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,640 posts
 
You may find that finding a transistor amplifier that has the warmth associated with real music (and tubes) to be harder than replacing the occasional tube.

IOW, if you seek the musicality of tubes, why not just get a tube amp and be done?
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