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"Warm Sounding" Solid State Amplifiers

As a Canadian I am naturally a huge fan of Bryston products but not long ago I switched things up for a NAD C355BEE integrated amp and instantly realized what I had been missing in terms of warmth, sweetness and overall pleasant sound.

I'm interested in moving up from there into some Class A or A/B amps but I don't know of any other warm sounding Solid State amps other than Pass Labs which are out of my price range at the moment.

Tubes are obviously "where it's at" as they would say but the maintenance factor is somewhat of a deterrent for me. Should I just go for an M series NAD amp or is there another intermediate product between that and Pass Labs??
pontifex
abrew19
146 posts
 
Just a thought here. If you covet Pass Labs but find even the used ones to be out of your price range, see if you can snag a good used Forte model 4 or 1a for cheap. I owned a model 1a for a short time before I went all in on a new Pass and I was very impressed by the Forte amp. It was a sweet sounding little amp. But since they would be quite old you need to get it for a good price to allow for recapping if it needs it.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,834 posts
 
You may find that finding a transistor amplifier that has the warmth associated with real music (and tubes) to be harder than replacing the occasional tube.

IOW, if you seek the musicality of tubes, why not just get a tube amp and be done?
ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
4,312 posts
 
Hegel H200 seems pretty warm to me.
csontos
1,311 posts
 
With all due respect Ralph, I am not aware of a 'warmth associated with real music(and tubes)' consensus. My take on it is simply a subjective preference over accuracy. I find real music to resemble a good, fast, flat frequency response of ss much more than typical tube sound. A no holds barred, pull no punches sound, right? Regardless of whether I prefer it or not. Which incidentally I do. It just can't have any detectable IMD/TIM. For example like my LSR&D amps. Very extended but also sweet. Nothing cold about them, just very linear. To each his own.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,295 posts
 
There is usually nothing particularly "warm" about live music.

Its more a technical artifact of hi fi reproduction when there is an emphasis in the 100-300 hz or so frequency range (upper bass).

I can find it inviting at first but eventually wears out its welcome in comparison to more balanced timbres.
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