First foray into Class A amp -- recommendations

Mtrot: That's cool, it's hard to find a dealer that carries all of those brands. Yeah I wouldn't do that either if you're going to buy used.

@No_money,

Yeah, I talked to him and was up front about my situation. He said he appreciated my doing that and that he rarely took in trades but would keep an eye out. He also said it was ok to come by sometime and listen a bit.

Now considering mostly Krell and Pass used amps. Going to take a listen to a Krell FPB 300cx tomorrow.

Mtrot, I wouldn't get too hung up on Class A biasing to be honest, it is mostly marketing bs. For your budget, I would look around for a 2nd hand Modwright KWA-150SE. I saw one on the 'Gon last year in excellent condition asking $3300. The Modwright is warm and tube-like, has PLENTY of power and has amazing inner details. My two cents.

I have a Pass INT-30A, and love it. It's ain't going anywhere. But to some extent, I think watts is watts, and 30 ain't a ton (respectfully disagreeing with those who say the effective watts of the Pass 30s are a lot higher). I'd be hesitant about your Legacies; I have a bud who is a legacy nut, and they seem to want power (which is how Bill W. auditions them, at least when I was at the factory). I used to run the 92db Montana EPS2s, which I loved, but they Pass wasn't really up to it. (I now use 97db Vaughns, with powered bass, to better effect, though I'm not persuaded they are intrinsically better than the Montanyies.)

For all things Pass, check out Mark at Reno HiFi, who is super helpful and has good deals.

Getting a Class A amp doesn't guarantee any type of specific sound. Also, its very hard to isolate what portion of an amps sound quality is due to it being Class A, or some other factors. I know my answer won't be very popular because I'm not giving you recommendations on specific models that you can act upon right away, but if you do some listening, you'll probably find it to be truthful.