Unhappy with tubes so which transistor amp?


Hi guys,

About 6 months back I bought an ARC Ref110. For one reason or another I am still running on the demo unit which has failed 2 times during this time. The first time it was one of the output tubes which was blown. This time it simply won't power up. I have checked the fuse and it looks ok but the amp shows no sign of life.

Based on my experience so far I am thinking that I will sell my unit brand new when I get it next week. I don't want to deal with a piece which breaks down often as for me reliability is one of the key criteria as I am totally zero on the technical side of electronics (changing the fuse may be as technical as it gets for me). So even stuff like biasing, changing tubes after x amount of hours looks like a lot of work to me.

Now after this background I come to the million dollar question. Since replacing the amp with my old Aragons I have noticed that I have lost significantly in 3 areas.

1) Soundstage does not seem to be as big as with the Ref110 specially in regard to sound coming from outside the speaker thing, which btw is gives you an awesome feeling if you are listening with the lights switched off

2) I have lost the mid range magic. This is painfully apparent in vocals as they have lost their sense of realism.

3) Digital glare and harshness has also crept back in the system.

Now I am looking for an amp that is SS but can give me back what I have lost although I am not sure about number 2 as everyone says you can't do it with SS. Basically I am looking for an SS amp with huge soundstage, beautiful and natural (not "smooth" as in muffled) midrange and san any digital glare. Price should be ~10K new or used.

The related equipment is ARC CD3 MKII, ARC LS26 and Peak Consult Empress loud speakers.

Any help or ideas is welcome.

Thanks

P.S. I posted the same on speaker forum by mistake. Mods please feel free to delete the other thread. Thanks
rayden1972
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!
Not to start another flame-fest - but you should check out the NuForce Ref9 V2 SE's. I am using an ARC LS26 with them and they are superb.

They will be replacing my Levinson 336.