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

My budget for an amp is below $10kish. I have a First Watt M2 and it is nice but I miss the 300B sound. Can’t stand the “linear” sound.
I love it “juicy”.

You need linear gain devices, like tubes.

the only linear gain SS devices are V-Fets, and Nelson’’s ’first watt’ SIT devices, and the Japanese equivalents. There is a Japanese company making some decently high powered ones, can’t remember their name.

the gain of the device MUST be linear, gain MUST be linear, NOT the non-linear gain of ALL transistors, of ALL types. MUST be linear like a triode.

This is high end audio, accurate, real audio. the rest is just dressed up cheapo schlock, from $50 to $200k, is is all the same. Non linear gain schlock and dreck. Seriously.


Here’s some data:

http://www.amplimos.it/e_v_fet.htm http://www.firstwatt.com/sitintro.html
http://www.sibatech.co.jp/maxonic/amp.html
https://www.tonepublications.com/whats-new-homepage/worlds-best-amplifier/


The future of high end can be moved to being back on track, to the place it should have been, when the cheapo non linear and odd order distortion "transistor" showed it’s face on the scene.

Sony corrected that with the creation and introduction of the V-fet, but the market was too far gone off course to understand it.

But some kept the torch alive.

For a V-fet to be useful to you, it needs to be a total pathway that is all V-Fet, the whole way through the given electronic pathway in the given amplifying device. And small-signal V-Fets or SIT’s are very rare.

Your quest is a powerful one but poorly realized as items to pursue may go. There is one single company in japan. And that’s it. the small transistors and the big high power transistors in the given amplifier must ALL be of the linear gain SIT and V-fet type, and very very few ’small signal’ or smaller linear gain transistors were ever made.

Triode real world transient functions in a tin can...can only be found in linear gain devices like V-Fets and SIT transistors. No other expenditure of monies can come close or equal it at all.

In the path you walk...the other 200k, 300k, or 2-3 million types of transistors (It’s a huge number) are all garbage, in comparison. Not worth bothering with at all. Don’t even try. Don’t waste your life energies or monies, as there is nothing there.

You may still be able to enjoy the music and hum along for a few bars, but not a single one of them will have the magic that our ears literally depend upon.

When it comes to solid state devices...Only the SIT and the V-Fet transistors are capable of that.

You understand that we make world class, new physics cables, yes?... and we depend on the high end market and... I’m seemingly attacking it’s core, at it’s peak $$$k levels?

This issue is real but very poorly realized. To the point few understand what is missing and what was lost. This is a move to a correction and in that there will be blood spilled, there will be changes, and it will move slow. We only have so much time in life to spend... so spend it wisely.

Move to V-Fet and SIT when and where you can, as the wait will be near impossible, and take a very long time, if it even occurs at all. The entire audio market and whole transistor world is too far gone down the wrong road. the correction, if any, will take about, oh.. 25 years, if it happens at all.

If one is to be alive at and throughout the given timeframe (we are all aging), that is.

We’ll all likely be wireheads (Cranial wired induction of signal) by that time (there is a notable probability of this), so it might not happen at all, outside of this small area of peak human awareness of the issue at hand.

Thus, one grabs the SIT and V-Fet devices where they can. Dog eat dog and run like a thief in the night... among the ones who are conscious of the problem at hand and the solutions available.

NO DUDE!!!!!!

There is a Japanese company making some decently high powered ones, can’t remember their name.

@teo_audio

If you are talking about 'VFETs' (Static Induction Transistors or SITs, are the exact same thing as VFETs FWIW...) then the name is Tokin. But you would have to sort out how to make an amplifier with these devices...

I have heard two SS amps that get close to 300b SET. Bakoon (I have the 12R - it has been replaced by the 13R) and Ancient Audio A-3 (http://www.ancient.com.pl/e_a-3.htm). 

@atmasphere , you are right on the money....yes, VFET is a SIT transistor.
Tonkin (NEC), nor any other manufacturer make SIT devices today....not that I am aware of.

@teo_audio I am having a hard time fallowing your message??
Linear, yes, SIT devices are the most linear SS devices ever made, but they are no longer made anywhere.
Are you implying a new design, new build?

BTW, VFET and not V-fet is the name that Sony used in the 70s.

Besides Nelson Pass designs, Digital Do-main https://www.techradar.com/reviews/audio-visual/hi-fi-and-audio/amplifiers/digital-do-main-b-1a-646182/review
is the last to deliver a real Vfet amp, but it is not all SIT. Just as the original Yamaha B-1, it uses small signal SIT devices but IIRC, the input section is handled by J-Fets.

IMHO, the most sensible approach is to use a fully restored and enhanced Yamaha B-1, B-2 or another powerful choice from Sony.
For preamp the choices are limited to Yamaha C-1 as this was the only Vfet preamp ever build, and even the C-1 uses some J-fets in the signal path..Yes, the C-1 is very "busy" but the tone section can be defeated and the line stage is stunning. The tone controll section in the C-1 is also handled mostly by SIT devices and it becomes useful if the listening room is not ideal.

The entire signal path between the Yamaha C-1 and B-1 is all Fet, with the majority of the signal being handled by Vfet/SIT devices.

Both the amp and preamp are 40 years old by now and need proper rehab....NO, a simple recap would not do...and YES, once restored, they sound sublime....as they should since they make use the most linear transistor type ever made.