Full-sounding SS amps (besides Pass)

Hi Peter and thank-you for the detailed reply.

I prefer the sound of MOSFET output stages - to my ears Bipolar always produce a "lisp" "s" kind of sound.

I know both design and parts selection are important and I have heard the "lisp" type sound with a couple of amps, including Cary's newer 500.1 SS amps (that I simply couldn't live with) but I never had that problem with their older 500MB SS amps that I found to be quite musical and liked much better.  The older 500MBs used Sanken 50 ampere, high current, wide bandwidth bipolar output devices.  My Class A Claytons, which use Motorola bipolar transistors do not have any signs of "lisp" or haze or any other artifact but I am sure the Class A operation bias and large power supply contribute to the sound.

I prefer the conveniences of having monoblocks and I am curious about your choice of really large stereo amplifiers vs. dedicated monoblocks, and whether the sound is affected (or not) by bridging a pair of your stereo amps (such as the mini-Olympia) as a monoblock implementation.  Do the amps provide fundamentally the same sound quality whether they are operated as a single stereo amp or a bridged mono pair?  Are there differences in addition to power output, such as input or output impedance, frequency or distortion characteristics, or other differences between the amps run in stereo or mono?

The new Cary SA-200.2 solid state amp has been good for me so far. However, I’m cheating a little by using a Cary SLP-98 tube preamp in front of it. :) Full, huge, sound. The detail/softness can be tuned with interconnects too. Cary Audio and another AudioGon’er recommend this hybrid pre/amp combo.  Really glad I tried it.

I often compare the SA-200.2 to a Cary V12R EL34 tube amp in Triode/Ultralinear modes. While the tube is nice and lush, sometimes the smooth and deliberate dynamics of the SA-200.2 solid state amp is fun too.

Very impressive lineup of equipment Peter!

Not necessarily warm or tubey per se, but fleshed out in the upper bass and harmonically complete in the midrange, as opposed to lean.

Ayre!

Mitch, 

The amplifiers are designed to be dedicated mono blocks and most use them as such, there is just the convenience that you can run one as a stereo amplifier.  The idea was way back when we started making Amplifiers (1998) that the customer could start with one amp then later get a second one.   The offerings back then were the Whitney, Denali and Everest with the Companion K2 preamplifier. These could be driven in "bridged" mode as you call it - where the inverting amplifier (with positive input grounded) is driven by the negative side of the non inverting amplifier.  However sound quality improved when driven balanced with a fully balanced preamplifier like the K2.

The newer series of amplifiers, (which started with the Mini Olympia, ca 2004) is  based upon our ALL-FET circuit which needs both nodes driven when using as a mono block - i.e the inverting amplifiers positive input needs signal. So a balanced input signal is required.  We only make fully balanced preamplifiers, even in the Liberty Lineup.

The power output quadruple when using them as mono blocks, obviously the output impedance will be twice that of a single channel but since we don't use any source resistors because of tightly matched output devices, the output impedance is vanishingly low.   

Most all our customers use our amplifiers a dedicated mono blocks, everything improves, coherence, speed,  dynamics  both micro and macro.   

Good Listening 

Peter