Are There Any Inherent Advantages to Class A amps?

Thanks Tripper. Those links are extremeley informative and they were very well written.

I believe Audiogon should have a glossary page. The links you provided are candidates for such a page.

mitch

The Krell is probobly pure class a for the first few watts or so. If your looking for true class a look into set amplification.

The Krells are Class A to their rated output.

Thanks for the references Tripper!

I have an amp that can be switched from pure A to A/B with a toggle switch in the back. I move it to A/B sometimes instead of turning it off (it runs much cooler in A/B). At other times, when the music is strictly for background listening I'll also run it A/B. I can always tell the difference! Class A sounds more "right" and much smoother overall.

I don't think the class of operation will (or should) make one amp be more advantageous over another. To answer the question directly: yes, there is an inherent advantage. It's the elimination of cross over distortion which means one less level of distortion to worry about during design. If one were to design a cost-not-matters sota amp, then class A will probably be ONE design criterion.

But it doesn't mean that the advantage results in a better amplifier - too many other factors are involved. I personally prefer the class A/B Classe amps over the class A Krells. Nothing against Krell, but to me their amps are just not to my taste. So to toss the coin with an eye towards operating class will not, in my view, bring about the end result of a good sounding system.