Sound of chip amps / gainclones?

My reference amps right now are Scott Nixon monos, modded by Parts Connexion. They put out effortless sound, extremely revealing and how many have mentioned before, are very well paired with a tubed preamp, mine being a First Sound Paramount Hot Rod MKII. With other amps I have tried....Blue Circle BC-2 Monos, Sonic Frontiers Power 2 tubed, Nakamichi PA-7 SS amp, as well as Musical Fidelity Class A integrated...and inumerable others, the Op Chip amplifiers, especially when they are matched with a synergistic tubed preamp and most importantly a complementary speaker, can outperform other SS and for that matter tubed design sonically, as well as being down right affordable in comparison.

What sort of 4" driver and speaker design are you going to attempt? I have heard BR Fostex' of a renown manufacturer and I was not impressed at all with a tilted presentation towards the midrange and treble.

I own the Channel Islands VMB-1s which are 40 watt/channel "Chip Amps" built by a well respected designer/builder. They are excellent at their price point. There are no high frequency anomolies and the bass is excellent. It is very easy to follow bass lines with these amps that were obscured by other amps I own. Also, the midrange is truely excellent.

Enjoy,

TIC

What is a chip amp??

Here's a small preview of chip amps. Chip amps. "They are excellent at their price point". Reubuent you are too nice!LOL

You know as well as the the rest of us .Price points are pretty much meaningless, when the chips amps are matched with the proper components.:-)

Good listening

Gmood1, good to hear from you. You got the patek from Peter Daniel's? From what I've read the LM3875 chips like a tube pre while a good T amp does better with a passive. I'm also looking at the Charlize amp. Which supposedly does not have the HF brightness that was mentioned in Stereophiles 47 Labs Gaincard review.

TIC I would agree with you and think that 40 wpc chip amp would be better sounding than the "D" amp - as long as you don't need 100-200 wpc. I was surprised to read in the C-I thread here at A-gon that people preferred the "D" amp.