Is there a Solid State amp that can satisfy a SET guy?

@lewinskih01 The difference between the XA25 and SIT-3 is very hard to put into words but in a nutshell the XA25 has more bass control and weight the overall presentation has a little more authority will a little more defined presentation of the soundstage and instruments. With the SIT-3 there is a sense of tube bloom, both amps have this but it`s more noticeable with the SIT-3. For me it was a give and take what i had always wished a SET could be better at the XA25 brings. Does the XA or SIT-3 sound like a SET amp? With 3D imaging yes but the tube bloom of lets say a 300B tube is not going to be there but you will have traces of that signature and the XA25 and SIT-3 maintain the realism that SET`s are famous for.

Pre-amps have a big impact on how the SIT-3 and XA25 present their sound currently i`m using a LTA as a pre and the combination works really well, i just placed an order with Supratek for a Chardonnay pre, i had heard one of these pre`s about ten years ago and i have never forgotten how great that pre sounded and now they have a gen3 that`s even better from what i have read.

What i listen too is all over the place, classic rock is at the top, then jazz, jam music, progressive rock Porcupine Tree for example then the classics Frank Sinatra ect. and others Sade, Nora Jones and so on.

Hope this helps somewhat.

You are digging your self a big hole Ralph.

@rh67. I look forward to the compare and contrast of the LTA and Supratek with the XA25 once you have it all settled. 

@annika I`m excited to get the Supratek and pair it with the XA25.

There is really little to no evidence for this statement, and considering the lobotomy most speakers do to phase-shift, it is hard to justify some extra margin from the amplifier destroying sound-stage. Sound-stage is based on volume (not phase dependent), ear to ear timing cues (also not phase dependent as long as shift is same for both speakers). That also primarily happens much less than 20KHz.


I don't think I have ever read any experiment that shows the ability to differentiate anything but quite significant phase shifts.

If you really want to get the soundstage right, the amp needs to have minimal phase shift in the audio regions so it will need bandwidth past 80KHz. Most larger SETs simply can't do that!