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RE: Are there any better SS class A amps for under $2000...

Posted by RGA (R) on April 12, 2016 at 20:05:32

In Reply to: RE: Are there any better SS class A amps for under $2000... posted by A.Wayne on April 12, 2016 at 09:48:07:

Not unlikie cars - you can purchase a very good Toyota Tercel which was in their time ranked as the most reliable car on the road. A very good SS.

A Bugatti (Audio Note Gaku-On) may very well be in the shop more but actually provides performance.

I realize performance is a debatable aspect of sound but I have heard the top of the line Krell, Momentum, Levinsons, Edge, Soulution, Contellation, Pass Labs, Analog Domain, YBA, Classe, Sim Audio, Bryston, Electrocompaniet, Diavalet, Bel Canto, MSB, MBL, Naim, Boulder, Spectral, Parasound, Musical Fidelity, Sugden Masterclass.

I've never really had an audition with these amplifiers where I walked away saying to myself that I would want any of them as a last system kind of sound versus even $5k SET amplifiers.

I also can't help going by personal, albeit anecdotal, experience where I have not yet had a tube amp that I have owned since 2000 fail but I have had three SS amps fail (albeit one was a Marantz receiver). Check that I had a flagship Pioneer Elite that was DOA when I first plugged it in and to be replaced with a new one.

I think the issue with tube amps are cold solders and they appear to be much easier to repair when they fail. I had a tube fail in my OTO - $8 to replace tube. 13 years so far.

I don't hate SS - it's relative discussion. As a friend and dealer of both for 40 years once noted after we listened to some raved about SS amp he was selling "This is very good" then a pause "for solid state." And it's worse when SS amp makers advertise or imply that their amp sounds valve-like because they are basically acknowledging what the reference sound for music playback is and then trying to design their SS amp to sound like it(valves).

People have owned tube amps for 50 years without replacing a single part. See old school McIntosh. And if I can buy a $5k SET amp that beats a $50k SS amp - well I can make an awful lot of repairs for the $45,000 I save! Granted I totally acknowledge that the sound is subjective.

It really does depend on how much better you perceive a SET amp to be over a SS amplifier. If I believed that SS was even close - I would probably opt for it to not deal with tubes - tubes are a pain in the butt.

But back in the day I was prepared to shell out for a Bryston Preamp and Bryston 3B combination. Not only is Bryston Bulletproof in reliability they carry a whopping 20 year warranty and are made in Canada with a big dealer network.

Unfortunately when the play button was pushed - a lowly SE tube integrated won out by enough of a margin to make the warranty come across as a gimmick. It's not a gimmick - it just felt that way at the time after the auditioning.

Again I don't really disagree with you. Unlike the car industry which tracks failure rates and types of failures and cost of failures - we all largely have to rely on anecdotes on which fails more - and we don't get to see the failure rates by brand - we know with the Lemon Aid guide in Canada that cars made by certain makers are utterly dreadful for failing. But there is no guide for audio.

I have not heard about too many failures of high end tube brands - I have seen several of the Chinese brands go up in flames - When I first tried tubes I was interested in a Jolida 202. A Vancouver dealer had one second hand and cheap - it had caught fire and was repaired. (it was REAL cheap). But I went to audition it twice and it failed both times. So yeah - not exactly great.

Edits: 04/12/16

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