Any SS class A experience to share?

As far as bass slam with the Aleph 5; I don't know if I can comment as of yet. The Aleph 5 is a new amp for me (as of about a week ago). I've been running it thus far with the SR17 monitors which don't get down below 40mhz. I also can't comment on the Aleph 3/30 comparison that Subaruguru mentions, since I have not either of those amps. Though the SR17's have a remarkably tight low end for such small boxes, I cannot say I'd equate the effect to that classic SS bass slam that hits you in the chest (not really fair to expect that from a small monitor though). I'd be curious to hear more comments on this (Suabru?) since I've not tried the Aleph 5 with bigger speakers yet. Maybe I'll bring it home and hook it up to my La Scala's! One additional comment I can make regarding Class A, as it pertains to my Aleph 5: They most definitely sound better, and more refined as they get hotter. 1 hour minimum, but many folks leave their class-A's running 24/7 and claim they sound best that way (after a few days running). I haven't really been able to tell the difference past two hours (it sounds great at that point) to two days (sounds the same to me as two hours, as far as I can tell, though my listening has not been so deleberate to really make a really critical judgement), so I save the power and shut them down when I know I won't be listening for a while (the Aleph is in my work system, so it shuts down on weekends). If I heard this amp blind I would NEVER guess I was listening to an SS amp (I would guess tubes or hybrid).

From personal experience of pairings with the Mini Utopia:
* Spectral could be an option
* YBA Passion (stereo)
* Symphonic Line Kraft 250A (the best bass "slam")
* Plinius (the newer model -- SA100?)
HOWEVER,
1) do try auditioning; the Minis are nice speakers (IMO), musical & precise, however I never found them "lush" or forgiving and their bass wasn't designed to go down very far.
2) check for low input impedance (i.e. matching) on these power amps: for example, the Kraft's input impedance is ~10kOhm.
3) Kraft, Spectral & others are wide bandwidth, and will amplify spurious info which in turn will probably be reproduced by your focal tweet!

Good luck!

Been through a lot of SS amps and I keep coming back to those that are biased deep into class A. I've heard some very good low bias class A/B amps of recent vintage, some of which are excellent deals (like the Citation 7.1), but the class A amps all seem to share certain fundamental traits that involve me much more readily in the music(...other than acting as space heaters, which, in my basement listening room, they are quite good at):

1. A certain ease of presentation.

2. A coherent quality

3. Tactile midrange, especially with female vocals.

4. Truth of timbre

5. Dynamic agility, sneaky fast. They just seem more real with all the small dynamic, ebb and flow stuff you hear in live music. To me, this is their most arresting quality, which they retain even at low listening levels.

Amps which do it for me :

Forte 1a & 4a

Monarchy SE-100 & SM-70

Most Llano amps

Reference Line Silver Signature (my all time favorite SS amp, has all the qualities above in spades. Makes most other amps, tubes included, sound a bit mechanical).

Just my experience.

'53, nice post (I'm 1952!).
I've been leaving my Aleph 2 monos (600w idle total) on all this week (it's 10F outside!), and am starting to agree that these thirsty non-PC hounds DO sound clearer ion the top octaves after at least 2 days.
I too routinely provided an hour or two warm-up, as clarity, slam, and extension improvements were easily noticed. After having decided to sell my Discovery essence XLR and keep my newish SPM instead, even though I feared the SPM was a little TOO revealing of junk up top, I now notice that the presentation after LONG warmup is astonishingly good with the SPM. NO top octaves slight edge that required the Essence previously. It's too bad that the SPM requires that I continue to pay for its performance by warming the big guns all the time. Strange synergies and parasitic relationships pop up in this noble hobby of ours, eh?

Hi Dud,

Last month, I auditioned many solid state amps in an effort to replace my ARC CA50. My purpose was to simplify ergonomics and lowering maintenance without sacrifice to sound quality.

I narrowed down to two amps, Aleph 3 and Gaincard. Currently, I am favoring the Gaincard. With the Aleph, I am using a digital preamp between the transport and dac.

Speakers I am using are KEF 103/4, Tannoy DMT10 and a pair of Silverline is on the way.