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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
bombaywalla's avatar
bombaywalla
1,958 posts
 
Csontos,
Sabai didn't turn it at all - what he wrote was his opinion based on his listening experience. Maybe he'll update it if he does listening to a wider variety of amps & maybe he won't?? Either case as far as I'm concerned he's OK to voice it here in this forum.

Seems like Zd542 has a very similar opinion as I do.....
bombaywalla's avatar
bombaywalla
1,958 posts
 
Pontiflex,
Thanks for the feedback.
Great that you made the effort to listen to some Pass amps. Yes, they are MOSFET output stage amps (as opposed to bipolar) & I believe that also has something to do with the sonics that you heard given that MOSFETs are a square-law semiconductor device.
See if the dealer will allow you an in-home demo - that would seal the deal for you in terms of confirming whether or not you want to save up for Pass amps going forward.
csontos
1,311 posts
 
Hey Bomb, it was rhetorical. He reminded me of the S-30 I missed out on buying recently.
bombaywalla's avatar
bombaywalla
1,958 posts
 
i see! it was actually aimed at you inadvertently.... ;-) LOL!
don_c55
1,025 posts
 
Old Audio Research SS amps {from 1989 to 1993} are warm sounding. So is GAS and Sumo.

All Pass Labs "Class A" and Ampzilla 2000 power amps are warm sounding IMO.
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