CLASS A AMPLIFIERS

I could be very wrong about this, but, I thought Aragon's trick was that they offered their rated class A opperation only so long as they were driven into an 8 Ohm load, below which they reverted into class AB. From what I understand the best ss class A/AB amps half their class A output as their class AB output doubles into progresively halved impdedances.

If its not real heavy and real hot its not running an appreciable amount of class A power. I'm not kidding about the hot. My amp ( gryphon antileon signature ) gets so hot you can not keep a hand on it for more than a few seconds when its really cranking. It runs 150W pure class A into 8 ohms 300w into 4 ohms 600w into 2 ohms and 1200w into 1 ohm and 2400w pure class A into 1\2 ohm ! To do this it requires 200 lbs of amp/heat sinks. Any amp that isn't very heavy can not dissipate the heat produced from this output. This is an inherant drawback of inefficient class A operation. Beware of "class A" amps with A/B output stages. These are not class A amps. Reguarding the sound , it is up to you to decide. I love it. One thing is for sure. It is uniformly stable no matter what load it sees. Good class A amps have ENORMOUS power supplies. I'd be surprised to hear of a class A\B that doubles down to 1\2 ohm. So are they better or more powerful ? It depends. If you have speakers whose impedence dips appreciably then they are probably functionaly more powerful. If you have lots of room, dont mind the heat or the aesthetics of a really big amp with questionable waf then yes I think they also produce better sound. This is just my opinion. - Jim

Another aspect to consider is that Single Ended class A amps do not increase their power output in lower impedence loads e.g Pass XA series amps. Which is why you need to consider the speakers efficency in most cases when using pure classs A amplifiers.

Chuck

Hi Al. The Gryphon Antileon Signature Stereo puts out 5000 watts at 1/2 ohm. The mono's put out 7500 watts at 1/4 ohm.
Frank
P.S. I have the Gryphon Encore. 500 watts at 8 ohms and the first 30 is class A.

Hey frankg how do you like the encore ? I've never compared it directly to the signature but I bet it holds up pretty well.- Jim