First foray into Class A amp -- recommendations

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.

Hey, thanks for all the advice. Got to hear the Krell FPB 300cx yesterday, as well as a set of Pass XA-100.5, on the same speakers. With respect to authentic sound of instruments and voices, and a sense of depth and placement of the soundstage, it seemed to me Pass was clearly superior. Now, the Krell seemed a bit more dynamic, with more solid attack on percussive transients. I want the dynamics, but, dang, that true sound of the Pass is impressive. As I was told, however, the Pass SHOULD sound better, as you are talking about an $18,000 set of amps.

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.

+1, Zd542 - I have found this to be exactly true, and based on his post above, the OP is finding this out too. The other lesson he will learn relates to the statement,

the Pass SHOULD sound better, as you are talking about an $18,000 set of amps.

Price and performance do not always correlate.

To Mtrot, if you want to run single-ended lines into balanced only amps, call Jensen or Lundahl transformers and purchase a set of input transformers for only a few hundred dollars. Assuming your amp's input impedance is sufficiently high, the transformers do a great job of single-ended to balanced conversion while also cutting down on noise.