Living room system: class A or AB amps?
robert1976 OP The low bias button is like a "stand by" button.No, not stand-by because that means the amp is not on, but a low biased high wattage Class-A/B amp that you can just leave as a warm up or use for non serious listening, eg: parties, dinner parties, background music etc etc. No heat or big Class-A power bills. Then if you want to listen seriously you just press the medium or high bias buttons, and there’s no wait time involved to listen to great Class-A sound. Cheers George |
In moving to a Class A amplifier, the main thing to consider is heat dissipation. If you have very efficient loudspeakers that will provide the level of sound you prefer in your living room, using a Class A amp should not be too much of an issue. You would most likely be able to get by with a relatively low power rated amplifier, either tube or solid state, and not worry about locating the amp inside a cabinet, for appearance purposes, provided the location has some reasonable ventilation as well as sufficient surrounding space inside the cabinet. I'm not sure what factor is prompting your question. Personally speaking, there are many fine sounding Class A/B or even Class D amps that may satisfy your audible enjoyment. I find that the majority of quality built Class A amps on the market tend to be a bit more pricey than A/B or D class amps. I'd take a serious look at the rest of your system. If the dollar investment doesn't exceed, say $10K, you may not reap enough sonic benefit to justify "CLASS A" expense, to say nothing of whatever appearance factor you may be trying to achieve. |
