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RE: The very "best" tube amps - or, the ones I'd most like to own...

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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