Most resolving, transparent amps.

I define transparency as a simple increase in gain from the source to the speakers. The magic is translating the medium, be it analog or digital, into electrical signals and sending them to the transducers, be they boxes or electrostats. My Bel Canto M300s are not perfect. They will not transform bad digital sources into music, nor correct bad recordings or mixes or pressings. What they will do is translate very accurately the source to the speaker. The problem can be with the source and source material. If it is well recorded, well mixed and well pressed, the Bel Cantos are excellent at presenting it. This assumes that the speakers match and there is synergy with the pre-amplifier. If the source has faults, the Bel Cantos will display them. If you believe even-ordered harmonics bring to life true music, then you need a tube pre-amp or a tubed amp. The Bel Cantos are very real and transparent, warts and all. With my tubed output CDP, and vinyl LPs, I have real music. They are life-like and transparent. I recommend that you try them out and see for yourself, before you take my word or the words of anyone else.

I think I like some meat on the bones...

If you miss the meat then you don't have a transparent system, just a lean one.
Real transparency includes the meat.

If you miss the meat then you don't have a transparent system, just a lean one.
Real transparency includes the meat.

OK, alright, you sussed me out; it's the pudding I'm after. I want pudding! I promise that I'll eat my meat, but I want my pudding too!

I've found that I tend to prefer systems that have a bit of a midrange boost, which is commonly associated with "warmth", and not so much with transparency. I wonder if both can coexist in a happy, healthy system...you know, one without the alcoholic amplifier who comes home and beats up the preamp because he had a bad day at work. The speakers always end up in therapy, and probably end up in some other disfunctional system later on down the line. So the same sad circle is perpetuated from system to system. For God's sake, we ought to lock em' all up and throw away the keys!

Marco

I think a good analogy of the term transparency would be the difference between looking through a dirty window as opposed to one that is extremely clean. In audio, I believe transparency is when the music's natural acoustics, ambience/reverberations along with the original signal are mostly preserved when the sound reaches your speakers. This is usually accomplished through components that have a very short signal path with good engineering & quality parts. It was mentioned above that passives are very successful in being very transparent which I find to be true. It doesn't take an audio engineer to figure why this is so since a passive has very few internal parts. In keeping with solid state amps, I think ARCs 100.2, Bat VK200 are very transparent. But it should also be mentioned as it was that a recording should be of sufficient quality, containing enough information for transparency to be present in varying degrees as well.

The better Krell amps! In my opinion for a power amp to be truly transparent it almost has to be a non-tubed design. I have never heard (which does not mean that they don't exist) a tubed amp that one could truly call transparent. For the most part, tube amps will add their footprint to the sonic signature of the music, whether that be considered warmth, distortion, smoothness?

In my opinion a transparent amp does not impart any sonic signature of its own, it just conveys the music from the source, cable and preamp as it is delivered to it. It does not add or detract anything. I have not heard all of the amps mentioned herein, but my Krell FPB does this better than any other amp I have owned or heard in my system. It doesn't take or add life, veil or add musicality, create or reduce grain or grit. It does seem to have excellent control of the music and not run out of power in my set-up/room. I can hear the ambience in different recording, the decay and leading edge transients in different records and clearly conveys the footprint of changes in cables. Additionally, it is built like the proverbial tank by a company that has been around quite some time.

All this being said, I don't know if this is what everybody wants in an amplifier?