When someone tells you it's a $40,000 amp, does it sound better?

@larrykell wrote:

True Class A amplifiers require large power supplies, huge heat sinks, have many output devices, consume lots of electricity, and generate a lot of heat. They’re expensive to build. My Colosseum has 48 Sanken bipolar transistors and can generate 160w at 8ohms and 1250w at 1 ohm. It’s all Class A. There can be no crossover distortion because the transistors never turn off. I think the sound is glorious and that there is no substitute for Class A amplification.

That’s one massive beast of a Class A amplifier - not to mention the power bill it produces..! I know, because I too am very fond of true Class A amplifiers. There’s this effortless smoothness/liquidity and natural warmth to a good such amplifier that’s addictive. The Class A amplifier I’m using is only 30W/8ohms, but it also only handles frequencies from ~600Hz on up, actively, while looking directly into a 111dB sensitive compression driver and its associated horn. Suddenly 30W gets you a long way - if it even outputs more than a single watt or two, indeed typically only a fraction of it and with all that entails with regard to miniscule distortion levels. With a closer to "normal" 91dB sensitive pair of speakers, passive at that, one would need 3kW to - on paper - equate the SPL-scenario of the 111dB/30W combo mentioned, driving a passive full-range load at that. One shivers by the thought of a 3kW true Class A amplifier...

It’s funny, I don’t find the power bill to be that prohibitive. Maybe the amp adds $20-40 a month, I’m not sure. My electricity bills are around $175-200 a month. I also charge my Tesla at home so I don’t know how much it costs to keep that charged up to 75%. I don’t drive much, though, and I certainly don’t run the Colosseum 24x7, lol.

At the moment, I am sad, as my beloved amp has a crackle in one channel so I have to arrange for a way to ship the 175lb monster to a repair center. 
 

Look at Gryphon’s Apex There is always a sky above a sky, as they say. 

@westcoastaudiophile

Well, I have $34K mono block amps and a $22K stereo amp (see my user ID) and no question the mono blocks produce much better sound than the $22K ones or the Pass $10K amps they replace. I think a total of 4 people have seen my system in the last 20 years, so it is not for show. 

I have heard +$40K amps.

The guy I bought my Colosseum from was going to Mephisto Solo monoblocks. 200w Class A each monoblock. I’m sure they sounded better than the Colosseum stereo amp. The key to moving up the ladder is finding someone who is upgrading and who is crazier than you are. The monoblocks are $190k a pair. 

My seller is a well known electrical engineer. He was running crazy huge wiring throughout his house, AWG 3/0? I can’t remember. It mattered to him. 

The seller of my Cantata speakers was converting his three car garage into a listening room so he needed bigger speakers. 

@sns +1

HiFi separate components, manufactured in very small quantities, have to be priced very high to cover huge R&D cost, internal parts cost more in lower quantities, tooling setup cost, ppl training, sales and marketing travel, exhibitions etc. Internal component quality and overall design of my Accupase amp exceed many, significantly more expensive amps, because it was produced in higher quantities. Second amp I have is a class-A custom made, beast with 40 TO3 metal housing bipolar complimentary transistors, and amp has two separate power supplies with 700VA toroid transformers for each ch., practically same as two mono-blocks. Measurements, including max output current, distortions etc are stellar, but I am not using it much because max power I need is about 15W, for my 89db/m sensitivity speakers.