Amplifiers weight

@millercarbon says,

" Mass matters."

The designer of my new amplifiers, SMc Audio, agrees and added their new "Gravity Base" to each of my new monoblocks.  The Gravity Base is basically a heavy brass plinth that anchors key components within the amplifier and serves as the base.  They proclaim the difference is not subtle.

It’s like cooking. Things such as transformers, caps, transistors ... are like ingredients. They establish an upper limits. And of course how good you are as a chef determines the final finished products.  Mr. Pass probably won't be able to do much if he could only use some tiny little transformers.  

The weight of an amp results from the philosophy of the designer. If the goal is to have an amp that will linearly increase its power into low impedance loads then it's likely to be heavy. In addition, if the designer prefers Class A bias then that will also add to the weight. For example, I have a Krell KSA 300S that provides 300 watts @ 8 ohms, 600 watts @ 4 ohms, and 1200 watts @ 2 ohms. Very few amplifiers will do this. There is also a automatic biasing feature that causes the amp to run in Class A mode up to high wattages. It weighs 185 lbs.

So why do I need all that power into low impedance loads? Because I run Thiel CS6 speakers that have low sensitivity (87db) and their impedance drops to below 3 ohms for parts of the audio band. This is a brutal load for an amplifier. For a speaker load like this the amplifier's capabilities will make a big difference in how the speakers sound.

Your Klipsch speakers are on the other end of the spectrum compared to my Thiels. They have 102db sensitivity which is very high. You would be fine with an 8 watt Single Ended Triode tube amp if you wanted to go that direction. Because your speakers are easy to drive you have a virtually unlimited selection of amplifiers.

If you had a bias toward tubes (pun intended) then you could go with any number of beautiful tube integrateds or separates. You don't need any more than 30 or 40 watts to shatter the windows unless you have a very big room.

If you are smitten by the appearance of gear then I have a word of warning. Don't look at the Line Magnetic LM-845 Premium integrated amp. It's necessary to see it in person to get the full effect (by the way it's really heavy). It's a little fat for your price range but you may sell the dog and take out a second mortgage to buy it. It wouldn't run my speakers but it's perfect for yours. The LM-845 may be the most beautiful piece of gear I've ever seen.

The McCormack DNA1 was my first real high end amp. Inside the box was this cheesy looking pointy nut screw thing. The manual called it a grounding spike and said try something like a coin under the spike. Looked silly and the pathetic but I tried it and sure enough it did tighten things up a bit. This was back early 90's. So Steve McCormack was an early adopter in the area of vibration control. 

That's really what is going on. Everything vibrates and mass tunes the vibrations. But not only mass. The same mass of lead, copper, iron, stainless steel, sugar, books, wood, carbon fiber, acrylic, will not sound the same. 

The thing is, where this comes into play with us and the OP question, this whole mass matters question is but one of many the designers and manufacturers have long since taken into account. One may do it like Steve all deliberate, another may do it by total disregard as not worth the time/money/effort. Whatever. Doesn't matter. Point is from our point of view all that matters is the result. There's just way too many different variables to think its even remotely possible we could look at something as silly as design and think we are able to figure out what will make the difference and what will not. Which is why we have to go and listen. 

But then, once we find the best by listening, then we use our knowledge of things like this to make it even better. Understanding not only mass matters, but stiffness, and damping- and those three are only the three that matter in the area of vibration control. Then there's the circuit design, which we generally have no control over (hardly anyone proficient enough to alter a circuit- note I said alter not merely upgrade parts quality in the same circuit which is a whole different thing). Then there's acoustics, and electricity. Which if you read mahgister he calls these his 3 embeddings. Whatever. Same general idea.

So even something as silly as "does amplifier weight matter?" turns out to have a serious side to it. Its just the silly aspect needs to be stomped to death, because its freaking rampant across the whole audiophile community. Everyone obsessed with arbitrary technical minutia like this when its a (near) total waste of time that could much better be spent listening and learning how this stuff actually sounds.