Which SS amp has the most tube-like tone and timbre?
- Thread starter caesar
- Start date
I miss my MC601's paired with a Conrad Johnson ET5 (at the time). I just did not appreciate what I had. Very musical and easy to listen to for hours on end.
Rowland 625 from what I've heard. Great ease, smooth and grainless and less mechanical sounding.
Ha!
I just have to be honest. I think we know the feeling when we start chasing our tails. I'm a little dizzy now
when conrad johnson tried to make a SS amp the first time, they failed. anyone remember the motif? the preamps were noisy and even had an underlying 'tube rush' or hiss and the amps possessed the worst kind of 'mosfet mist' like a veil over the music, the antithesis of transparent.
with modern gear, me thinks electrocompaniet, rowland, ayre and gamut would make the tube-like list. some class d amps ive heard come close.
with modern gear, me thinks electrocompaniet, rowland, ayre and gamut would make the tube-like list. some class d amps ive heard come close.
If there were no tubes around and i would stop fiddling around,.....
Probably an all boulder set up would do ,and forget about gear all together
Probably an all boulder set up would do ,and forget about gear all together
Naksa 70 or 100 from Hugh Dean of Aspen amplifiers - an amplifier designer of note http://www.aksaonline.com/products/products_NAKSA70.html
I have the Naksa 70 & can fully agree with this statement from the site "The NAKSA 70 creates a presentation comparable to a quality tube amplifier, whilst delivering stunning resolution and a pure, sweet, musical sound."
I have the Naksa 70 & can fully agree with this statement from the site "The NAKSA 70 creates a presentation comparable to a quality tube amplifier, whilst delivering stunning resolution and a pure, sweet, musical sound."
technical brian showed at the newport show last month. i never heard of them before and it was a good sounding room, at the time i thought the TAD CR-1s had much to do with it.
That's a good question. I heard the TAD sound meiocre in other room(s) with other equipment (201o RMAF0
Valin raved about the TB but the issues with them have been discussed here previously.
IIRC, Lloyd Walker was using them at CES; he had Burmester in NYC.
For those of you curious about my experiences with Pass, the amps we something XAand cost $16K or so. They drove the newer $50K Focals ( I get confused about their model names, as they all sound similar to me). The front end was the top of the line one-box esoteric. Overall, the system sounded hi-fi to me - meaning it was executing on the audiophile vocabulary but lacking to put me in a state of flow and connection to the music.
But we all have different tastes, and thus many brands to choose from. I am happy for those of you who are enjoying your amps.
But we all have different tastes, and thus many brands to choose from. I am happy for those of you who are enjoying your amps.
I am not a fan of Magico, but the best I have heard Magico sound was with Balabo (and VTL), as it put some meat on the anorexic bones.
As for Soulution, in the latest Stereophile, Fremer said that Soulution sounded too thin and too speedy - compared to the big Dartzeel amps he just reviewed.
Personally, I think the ancillary equipment, including the source, cabling, and room acoustics have so much to do with how a certain amp "sounds". In other words, you could listen to an amp in one room and it will sound "mid-fi" and in another room it may sound warm, inviting, and connect you to the music. I wish you luck in your search.
Last edited:
More Ponk channeling! Just kidding Mark!
Don made an interesting comment about dropping the damping factor. I noticed that tubes have a rep for being sluggish but I have found that it is load dependent. A decently done 8 or even 3 watt tube amp into 105dB fairly flat impedance loudspeakers will disabuse any believer in this characterization of tube amps in general. Being "stressed" also affects the harmonic distortion levels as Don pointed out.
So to me, when I think of tube like timbre and tone, I am not thinking of the improperly loaded characteristics of tube amps but rather their low level resolving capabilities particularly the type of zero crossover distortion artifacts (the edginess found in less than stellar SS implementation or PP tubes for that matter). I find tubes more benign in this regard. The commonality for me then of the SS amps I tried with the tube amps I like isn't a warm and fuzzy nature. What they seem to also have in common are very fast switching transistors (look at the bandwidth figures). While these alone are no guarantee of good articulation and by that I mean articulation that sounds natural, I'm just stating an observation.
That said, yes tube amps can be PITAs and like I said, that's why I switched.
Don made an interesting comment about dropping the damping factor. I noticed that tubes have a rep for being sluggish but I have found that it is load dependent. A decently done 8 or even 3 watt tube amp into 105dB fairly flat impedance loudspeakers will disabuse any believer in this characterization of tube amps in general. Being "stressed" also affects the harmonic distortion levels as Don pointed out.
So to me, when I think of tube like timbre and tone, I am not thinking of the improperly loaded characteristics of tube amps but rather their low level resolving capabilities particularly the type of zero crossover distortion artifacts (the edginess found in less than stellar SS implementation or PP tubes for that matter). I find tubes more benign in this regard. The commonality for me then of the SS amps I tried with the tube amps I like isn't a warm and fuzzy nature. What they seem to also have in common are very fast switching transistors (look at the bandwidth figures). While these alone are no guarantee of good articulation and by that I mean articulation that sounds natural, I'm just stating an observation.
That said, yes tube amps can be PITAs and like I said, that's why I switched.
Perhaps the Focal's were the cultprit of the Hi-Fi sound you heard ? It sure isn't the hallmark of the XA.5 series of Pass amps...that's for sure.
Similar threads
 | Steve Williams Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator |  | Ron Resnick Site Owner | Administrator |  | Julian (The Fixer) Website Build | Marketing Managersing |