Sound characteristics of YBA

Your description is quite right already. You need to pay attention to speaker matching too, as with all very good gear.

Arthur

You got that right! I used to own the Integre and then moved up to the Passion Integre. 50, then 100 of the sweetest SS watts these ears have heard. The Passion can tango with just about, IMHO, any of the big boy integrateds.

YBA has a very emotional sound with a slightly laid back midrange and a touch less air in the highs compared to some tube amps. Nevertheless, YBA is capable of some incredible sound, always enjoyable (how many amps can you say that about? ALWAYS ENJOYABLE).

Do they leave stuff to be desired? For some, definitely. For me, I could happily live with YBA. Who cares about perfect sound? I just want to listen to music FOREVER ... and you can really do that with YBA.

I almost forgot ... the BASS of the YBA passion series! Unreal!!!! Room treatments go a long way to show this.