Unhappy with tubes so which transistor amp?

You must try McIntosh MC501 monoblocks at some point. They are the ideal thing for you IMO.

Arthur

I'm not a big fan of tube power amps, much prefer the tubes in the preamp only, the maintenance involved, tube biasing unless its self biasing, the heat generated, tubes are wearing out once it is turn on, much more so with tube amps than tube preamps. When I listen to music I don't want to worry about the gear. It has been mentioned in other threads and worth mentioning again that the ARC 100.2 is a worthy contender since it is known to be one of the best sounding solid state amps ever produced by Audio Research. Partner it with a quality Audio Research tube preamp and you have given up very little.

HD220 will still leave you missing in 2, maybe/maybe not in 3, but it still sounds very good and is synergistic.

What about trying the CJ Premier 350? The reviews say it has all that, but I haven't heard it. Just a thought.

A Steve McCormack modded DNA-225 or even a non modded DNA-500 may do the trick for you. I have the DNA-125 and I love it with a tubed pre and eventually will have it modded by Steve. I believe a tubed pre with either of these amps would give you much of what you are looking for. For the kind of bucks you are looking at spending you need to make arrangements to hear the amp with your sytem and in your listening environment.

How about a hybrid amp?
It combines the best of both worlds, like a solid state amp, for great bass response (deep and tight) and ease of use, and like a tube amp for that great mid-range and delicate treble extension.

I use the Lamm M2.1 hybrid monoblocks (200 wpc). These amps are a Class A/AB amp, that is heavily biased to run in Class A, (up to 36 wpc before they go into Class AB). They only have one 6922 tube in each amp, and no biasing is necessary. (And if you wish, you can even do a bit of tube rolling to get the sound exactly the way you want it. And since there are only two tubes total to buy, it is relatively cheap to tube roll.) These amps are much better than any solid state or pure tube amp I have heard, with one possible exception (more on that later). I have owned a couple of Mark Levinson amps, and my friend, who also owns Lamm hybrid amps (the M2.2- 220 wpc, which is the successor to the M2.1) has owned Classe, Nuforce and Rowland solid state amps, and the Lamm easily bested them all. My friend also went through several tube monoblocks, including the Kora Cosmos, BAT VK-150s, Manley Neoclassic 250s and the VTL MB-450s. Again, the Lamm was clearly better than all of them, although both the Manley and VTLs came closer than any of the solid state amps.

I paid $7K for my Lamm M2.1s, used of course. If you don't need 200 wpc, you can find a used pair of M1.1s (100 wpc - a full Class A amp, btw) for around the same price. I will point out that the only cavaet of using Lamm amps, are that since they are either full Class A, or heavily biased into Class A, is that they run very warm. (You won't burn yourself if you touch the top of the amp, but it will warm up the room a couple of degrees. A tradeoff I will gladly accept in order to get the best sonics I have ever heard!)

However, there is one solid state amp that sounds almost as good as the Lamm hybrids, (and to some people, as good, if not slightly better). That is the 100 wpc DarTZeel NHB-108. Personally, I prefer the M2.1/M2.2s as I like having the extra power in order to get best bass response out of my speakers, (and I think the treble is slightly better too), but if you must have a solid state amp, this is the one to get, IMHO. They sound as good as the Lamms do in the mid-range, which is where the most important part of the music is. Used they run just slightly above $10K, but it would be well worth it to get that quality of sound.

My two cents worth.
Good Luck in your search!