Short List of Amps I prefer over the Pass Labs XA25 or INT 25

A 20 year old amp that I prefer over all First Watts and XA25 (which is a souped up FW) is the Plinius SA50 Mk3.  

Listen to that Eric dude he knows everything about everything.

@atmasphere,  interesting and beautiful theory /hypothesis on harmonic orders. it is not easy to imagine how it works in practice. how different harmonic orders are related in phase/time, why their combination should lead to a soft pleasing sound? how many amps with 0 distortion did you see, what you mean when you refer to an amp without any distortion? and what if the distortion is too small, say .001? would then still a several harmonic order sound with distortion be better, by the way, how many harmonic orders give tube amps (all of them the same number)? 

i was a tube fun for 15 year used only tube amps. once i tried a class ab/a amp i was indeed pleased and even released with a clean clear sound that it produced. if your auditioning experience is based on  a sound with distortion, you are merely in a wrong musical world. it is a personal matter whether you like it or not. in painting, i personally like impressionism the most, because i like to see the world in this alternative way. but ii think sound and music is something different, one naturally prefers a natural uncolored sound that come from musical instruments. if there is a luck of some details and sound is not clean,  you do not really perceive what the artists wished to express. 

 i personally do not like colored sound that produce many expensive and extremely expensive amps (and also speakers). they just to not sound right for me. currently, i am pleased with Cherry Megaschino class D amp which sounds very neutral, detailed and clean, is much smaller and consumes much less energy. 

Sounds like you would be in love with the Lejonklou products.

@atmasphere, interesting and beautiful theory /hypothesis on harmonic orders. it is not easy to imagine how it works in practice. how different harmonic orders are related in phase/time, why their combination should lead to a soft pleasing sound? how many amps with 0 distortion did you see, what you mean when you refer to an amp without any distortion? and what if the distortion is too small, say .001? would then still a several harmonic order sound with distortion be better, by the way, how many harmonic orders give tube amps (all of them the same number)?

i was a tube fun for 15 year used only tube amps. once i tried a class ab/a amp i was indeed pleased and even released with a clean clear sound that it produced. if your auditioning experience is based on a sound with distortion, you are merely in a wrong musical world.

There are no amps with '0 distortion'. Such is impossible at the current time! 0.001% is audible if there are no lower orders to mask their presence. This is due to the fact that the ear uses the higher orders to sense sound pressure, and so is keenly sensitive to their presence.


All amps make distortion, and since the ear converts all forms of distortion into tonality, this is the primary difference you hear between amps. IOW **everyone** is basing their auditioning experience based on a sound with distortion.