Older PURE CLASS-A Amplifiers

nobody's mentioned the Pass Aleph series amps, amongst the most famous of all class a solid state amps...are they not considered to be in the same league as the above mentioned amplifiers??

The Aleph-3 is the best amp I have ever owned.
Too bad I bought some Thiels and had to go to a bigger amp.I wish I would kept the amp and bought different speakers (for power only as I love my Thiels) Although this thread asks for CLASS A bias amps only.I would like to add,my Threshold A/B S/300 is a killer amp!
It drives my Thiels with ease,and then some.

The Platinum Reference I is the biggest chanllenge to power amps. I have yet to find anything that make it sound acceptable to my ears.
I have matched it with about a dozen amps 5 years ago (from $$$$ SS amps to tube amps )and gave up at the end. No matter what you feed through it, it never sound as open and relax as some other better monitor speakers. I ended up ATC SCM10s as it sound much more realistic, relax and open ( very dynamic without the constrain I felt from the Platinums.)

What is your experience of intensive wear that pure Class A designs impose to output transistors? Does Class A amps were at a faster rate than a/AB?, which are the sonic implications of such "wear" in older Class A designs?

The older Threshold S and SA series amps can still hold their own against the newer equipment. I am quite familiar with them and have heard many of them over the years at a local dealer that used to sell Threshold. I currently have the S350e Class A/AB model. As someone else had mentioned, I think I would shy away from the T-50 model because I also have heard that the IGBT ouput devices used by the T series are no longer available. All of the older Threshold amps that I have heard, including my own have delivered a relatively neutral presentation, depending on what other components were also in the chain. IMO they have a similar sound to the Pass X series amps. If you happen to see one of the class A SA series for sale GRAB IT!