Looking for high power warming sounding tube amps

+5 Quicksilver. I have the Mono 60's and they're delightful in the midrange.

That said, I also have the Pass XA25 and its mids are luscious and intimate. Close your eyes and you might swear you're listening to a tube amp. 

I was a long time owner of a Pass x350. I now have Audio Research Reference 160m monoblocks. The moment I heard the ARC 160 that was the end of my love affair with solid state amps. It is because they sound like real music and in particular the bass.

Most likely what you like about the X350 is the slap you get because of the really fast bass… the slam. You’re not going to get that with tubes. Also, that is not real. I spent over ten years going to hundreds of concerts and that bass slap doesn’t happen in the real world. I used to crave it as well… then realized that when you switch to a Conrad Johnson, Audio Research, or other high quality tube amp you get much more. You get highly detailed natural sounding bass and fully fleshed out midrange smoothly transitioning to bass. The very fast powerful solid state generated bass tends to be monolithic and accentuated by a leaner than real lower midrange/ upper bass. There are great detail in the bass of a good tube amp.

So, when I swapped in a ARC 160 for a test (leaving it nearby so I could swap it in and out), I thought, “what happened to the bass?… the Pass is never going back in.” It never did. In fact that I quickly switched from the 140 watts per channel linear mode to the 70 wpc in triode mode… no difference in loudness, but more musical.

I recommend spending some time with one of these great tube amps and really listen carefully weighing what you get / what you loose. At least for me, there is no contest. Tubes win. Your decision may be different.

Now having been pursuing high end audio for 50 years I realize the most important transition I made was that in the last fifteen years i changing from looking for simply what “sounded good” to me, to pursuing true high fidelity audio reproduction. This ended the problem that a change would improve one genera of music and negatively impact five other genera that liked. A huge step forward for me was getting a high quality tube amp… and letting the pursuit of slam go by the wayside.

@ghdprentice interesting description. What preamp are you using with the ARC 160 monos?

• Check out his main system page: Audio Research Reference 6SE Preamp

@ghdprentice 

Most likely what you like about the X350 is the slap you get because of the really fast bass… the slam. You’re not going to get that with tubes. Also, that is not real. I spent over ten years going to hundreds of concerts and that bass slap doesn’t happen in the real world. I used to crave it as well… then realized that when you switch to a Conrad Johnson, Audio Research, or other high quality tube amp you get much more. You get highly detailed natural sounding bass and fully fleshed out midrange smoothly transitioning to bass. The very fast powerful solid state generated bass tends to be monolithic and accentuated by a leaner than real lower midrange/ upper bass. There are great detail

Terrific observation!

I do believe that the higher damping factor (DF) is appealing and its effect on bass is desirable for many. In my experience it adds a “tightness “ to bass frequencies that I just do not hear when listening to actual live acoustic lower range instruments. So I clearly understand your point. Nonetheless, the DF tightening is sought after.

Charles