Thank you LabTec, yes you are right... To each his own. I am delighted that you love all your tube and SS amps.
Personally, I do not seek amps that emulate the sound of anything in particular. I seek devices that instantiate the sound signature and musical concept that I have in mind.
Being essentially maintenance-free, not doubling as furnaces, and enjoying a stable performance without tube replacements, are also very desirable characteristics for me.
Today, a pair of Rowland M925 class D monos give me amazing nirvana... To a greater extent than most amps I have ever auditioned. Interestingly, they are highly reliable, are very efficient, and their performance remains stable over time. What more could I wish?!
Tomorrow, I might discover amps that yield an even greater degree of enchantment. M925 might be replaced by some low or moderately biased class A/B amps, or I might still be with some class D device.... Class A and high powered tubed amps are unlikely to make the cut for the reasons mentioned above, but I do not exclude them apriori.
Bottom line is that I follow neither "the road less traveled" nor "the more traveled" one... Fact is that I could not care any less about the number of travellers on a road, and which topology "most people" return to... I only seek that which gives me audible joy, evaluating amps one at a time solely on their own particular merits,while keeping as open a mind as I can to the world around me.
G.
