Pure class A amplifiers = "slow" amplifiers?

do you know for sure that the slow sound you have heard was attributed to the amplifiers?

I have never heard a system with a Class A amplifier sound slow. Slow sound is usually a result of overripe, fat and bloated bass. If the amps you heard possess that quality, then I guess it is what you heard.

Systems that overemphasize bass usually sound slower. Although there are amps that sound heavier in bass with softer highs than other amps, but it hardly is a characteristic of a pure Class A amplifier sound.

If I recall correctly from your previous posts, you own digital amps. Sound of digital amps is different. If you are used to one type of sound, you need to readjust and get used to a different sonic presentation if you switch to Class A amps. The sound is just different. Which is right, it's for you to decide.

The thing that makes this comparison tough is that in order to be valid, the amps you're comparing (class A to class AB, etc.) have to be the same in other ways as well . . . and this may not be the case in your experience.

I would hypothesize that the class A designs you're associating the "slow" sound with also are single-ended or zero-feedback designs that have a comparitively high output impedance, which will definately affect most loudspeakers' response in such a way as to change the way you percieve timing information.

Dazzdax,

I think I understand where you are coming from. When I first heard my Nagra VPA tube amps (which are Class A), I experienced the same thing. In fact, when I first inserted them into the system, the music seemed less dense, and slow...there was no sense of urgency to the music. But there was a sense of "rightness" to the music that I cannot describe.

Your hunch about the lack of distortion is what my hunch is...of course over time, once my ears adjusted to the new sound, and now I no longer experience the "slowness".

Thanks

it's too easy to generalize. i am auditioning a class a amp with my magnepan 1.6s. i would not use the word "slow" to describe what i hear. my "reference" amplifier(s) is the vtl deluxe 120.

while an amplifier may have a peak in the bass, it may also be extended in the treble. depnednding upon the frequency response, such a situation may be described as "boom and sizzle".

the combination of attenuated treble response combined with an over emphasis in the region 80 to say 150 hz is rare in a class a amp, in my opinion.

In the Black and Blue books of the the great German or was Austrian Oh that's right Vienese Philosoper Wittengstein explained at length . The only thing which anything tells you of itself, is limited to what it can tell you. Further you can't whistle about it either. In plain old Austrian if the thing called Class A amplification tells you it sounds slow -it does indeed sound slow. Logic will tell you that if A does not depends on how it's circuit. then you can count on A always being A. His obversations being limited to the fin de Ciecle or Saichel, when there was no abundance of anything, especially class A, so could he know? We are left to ponder.
Finally if it sounds slow is that so terrible?