Pure Class A amps above 100 Watts?
Not with the way those heatsinks are arranged, and they don’t say 300w Class-A. They say 300w into 8ohms which will be a/b with a few watts of Class-A bias. Again power consumption is rated at 300w, big difference to how much Class-A bias is on them. M300 - 300 watt monoblocks Cheers George |
They actually do say 300wpc in Class A George. The amps also have a bias switch and the manufacturer states they provide 200 wpc in Class A when the switch is in the low bias position. The Clayton Audio M-300’s are high current differential True BalancedTM amplifiers using class A design in both the driver and output stage. All gain transistors are operated in their linear region for the smoothest, purest sound reproduction.They run very hot. |
Sorry Mitch you been had, this is A/B what you think is Class-A. "Class A Operation / Fully Balanced / XLR Inputs Only"This is not an indication of 300w Class-A. "300 Watts continuous rms into 8 ohms"This is an indication of rms watts Class-A/B "Power Consumption: Low Bias Mode - 300 Watts"This is the "power consumption", not the Class-A bias "Power Consumption: High Bias Mode - 800 Watts"This again is the "power consumption", not the Class-A bias If this amp had the Class-A bias you think it has it would be the size of a house!! Here is an example of what heat sinks are needed to have just a 25w Class-A mono block amps with nothing over 25w (no Class-B at all) if it were say 50w of A/B the "heatsink area" for the same 25w of Class-A would more than double. They are the famous 25w Class-A Mark Levinson ML2 monoblocks, but that’s all they had 25w!!!! https://ibb.co/d6zvmMR Cheers George |
Indeed, since the low bias setting still provides class A operation up to 200 watts, you should hear little difference between the settings most of the time. For the absolute highest quality reproduction of dynamic material and the most critical listening, the amplifiers should be set to the high bias level for full class A operation.Nobody but you George has ever questioned that these operate in Class A - as indicated in the mfg’s statement above. However, your unsolicited challenge doesn’t really matter after all the positive reports/reviews of these amplifiers. Have you ever heard a pair? BTW, the Lamm M1.2 Reference amps (also Class A) I owned at the same time as my M300s had similar heat sinking to the ML amps in your picture and although the Lamms were quite good, my musical preference was for the Clayton’s, so I sold the Lamms. |
As good as those ML2s were in their day, a new Pass XA25 has a similar performance without the need to use that much iron. But that aside, I find the 800 watt power consumption and 300 wpc Class A a bit inconsistent unless the design is similar to the Krell so called sliding bias or something along those lines. Otherwise, something more like ~2500+ watts is more realistic which I believe is the point George is trying to make. |
