In Reply to: The very "best" tube amps - or, the ones I'd most like to own... posted by genungo on October 20, 2014 at 09:32:05:
I would like to give the Wyetech Sapphire a test drive as well. It is not dissimilar to the JJ 322 I am using on my Ref 3as at the moment.
I would; however, disagree with you regarding the sound of the best tube, hybrid and SS designs. They have not, to my ears really converged.
So, when we say best SS designs I assume we mean some of the following:
darTZeel
Soulution
Krell Evo
Constellation
Vitus
D'Agostino
FM Acoustics(?)
Devialet (Class D candidate?)
Pass Labs
Ayre
For the best Tubes I would put forward some on this list:
Lamm
Ypsilon (they also make pure tube designs)
Wyetech
Kondo
Wavac
Shindo
Allnic
AN uk (top models)
Border Patrol
New Audio Frontiers
Ayon
Atmasphere
Joule Electra
NAT
BAT
For best Hybrids I would put forward some on this list:
KR Audio (yes they are hybrids)
Lamm
Ypsilon
Siltech
Sphinx Project 16 (defunct but from Siltech designer)
AcousticPlan
NAT Symbiosis SE (now out of production)
Blue Circle Audio (BC2.1 now out of production)
Pathos
Robert Koda
While the ones on the tube list and the hybrid list often sound similiar, I can tell you that the ones on the SS list do not sound close to the tube or hybrid list.
The SS amps miss the liquidity, midrange palpability, tonal texture and dynamic expressiveness of the best on the other lists. They miss it in a big way...the closest I heard might be the Vitus amps but I guess the Pass First Watts are truly the closest (I haven't heard them though).
The sound of the Living Voice system in Munich would not had half the realism it had if they had swapped out the Kondo gear for Vitus or darTZeel, or Pass. Just like that.
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Follow Ups
- RE: The very "best" tube amps - or, the ones I'd most like to own... - morricab 02:17:25 10/21/14 (15)
- RE: The very "best" tube amps - or, the ones I'd most like to own... - A.Wayne 23:22:07 10/22/14 (1)
- RE: The very "best" tube amps - or, the ones I'd most like to own... - morricab 08:43:14 10/23/14 (0)
- RE: The very "best" tube amps - or, the ones I'd most like to own... - genungo 04:12:00 10/21/14 (12)
- RE: The very "best" tube amps - or, the ones I'd most like to own... - morricab 03:27:49 10/22/14 (11)
- RE: The very "best" tube amps - or, the ones I'd most like to own... - morricab 08:49:22 10/23/14 (0)
- RE: The very "best" tube amps - or, the ones I'd most like to own... - genungo 04:16:05 10/23/14 (8)
- RE: The very "best" tube amps - or, the ones I'd most like to own... - morricab 09:22:07 10/23/14 (7)
- RE: The very "best" tube amps - or, the ones I'd most like to own... - A.Wayne 11:48:05 10/23/14 (4)
- RE: The very "best" tube amps - or, the ones I'd most like to own... - morricab 00:54:42 10/24/14 (0)
- And, speaker/amp matching... - genungo 16:02:19 10/23/14 (2)
- RE: And, speaker/amp matching... - A.Wayne 16:29:51 10/23/14 (1)
- RE: And, speaker/amp matching... - morricab 00:44:26 10/24/14 (0)
- RE: "Not using a transistor headphone amp" - genungo 10:30:58 10/23/14 (1)
- RE: "Not using a transistor headphone amp" - morricab 00:57:58 10/24/14 (0)
- RE: The very "best" tube amps - or, the ones I'd most like to own... - Disbeliever 04:11:22 10/22/14 (0)