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
