Any SS class A experience to share?

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.

Hey Viggen, I recall that thread...are you still messin' round?! Which Silverlines are you getting? I recently got an Aleph 5 for my work system and am pretty amazed at how tube-like the sound is. It's not tubes, but it has its own nice qualities that makes up for what it is lacking. Still, when I get home to those SET's I am back in heaven! I must say the Aleph is really impressing me though! Never heard SS sound so good. I'm running it through Silverline SR-17's and that combination is like liquid butter! I'd like a bit more efficiency from the speakers if I were in a larger space though. For small spaces I couldn't ask for more.

Viggen, Do the Aleph 3 and Gaincard sound similar?