Pure Class-A Amp under $2000 (USED)


Hello everyone,

There are so many brands out there that I couldn't catch up with, so I opened a thread about Class-A Amp for discussion. My budget is around $2000 for a Stereo Amplifier (No need for Pre), could you guys help me to suggest me some?

- DAC: Exogal Comet

- Pre/Amp: Yamaha Intergrated A-9 (My current, but want to update)

- Speaker: Sonus Faber Venere 2.0

- Cable: Acrolink (Power, Interconnect, Speaker)

=> I think the wattage range between 30-60WPC for Class-A is powerful and popular. The production date of amplifier should not too old, I think after 199x is nice.

128x128darkknight8586

If you are looking for a pure Class A (not a class A rated) power amplifier then PM me and I can send you a LUX kit pure class A amplifier for you to hear.

@darkknight8586 I believe Krell KSA 150 and 250 operate in Class A and deliver plenty of power. There are some other Krell models such as sustained plateau biased models also operate in pure Class A. There is one KSA 150 available for $2,500 if you are interested. KSA 150 burn 300W when at idle! Class A efficiency is very low around 10-15% tops. For this reason, I purchased little brother in this series KST 100, but Class AB biased. Imaging, depth, spacing around instruments are outstanding.

 

It seems that Sugden is quite favourable by many users, and they look very nice

@pwerahera how do you feel about the sound of Krell? I heard they have a very forceful bass.

I have a LUXMAN 550ax2 in my tannoy system but just picked up jungson ja88 used for £400 ($470) and amazed ... Need to drop into the main system as think it could be as good as the luxman ... It's a bit more powerful 

https://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0809/jungson_ja88d.htm#:~:text=The%20JA%2D88D(09)%20was%20a%20joy%20to%20use,quickly%20got%20used%20to%20it.

It does suck about 380w from wall and get warm which is fine here in Scotland ....

Built very nice but heavy at 27kg and big so you need space on a rack or sideboard.

 

whatever you do, steer clear of that Emoteva tripe.

gain is ultra high, you will have tweeter hiss

plus the service on them is a disgrace to audio.

they are ok for what they are entry level stereo separates .

nothing more.  i did hear the new flagship speaker was fairly descent, despite the very low Watts/current allowed. for such a good size speaker, i think its only 250W

 

i do like the folded horn tweeter if the source material is well recorded.

heavy metal through the Emo amps was painful, they are bright, even with a 92 1w/1m pair of old speakers i had 15+ years ago.

they were ok for country, or reg rock, but metal,...aaaarrrgggghhhhh shrill, i even switched speakers, and still shrill and molar grinding.

had the xpa-1 monos.  big bulky, and those knight rider like blue meters on the front were making the amp look cheap and low end. as it is. i had them shut off from first warmup.

 

if you know about class A, im sure you know about that Emo mess