The "charactor" of pure Class A?

Authority yes and finesse and sweetness, when called for. The early ML-20 monos had it 40 years ago and how wonderful they sounded on the Quads or later the Servo Statics. Anyone remember?
And Ralphs own now on my Sound Labs, which is a difficult load for the MA-2 Mk. III's 220 watts but it easily betters the Siegfrieds in triode mode at about 400 watts and only in pentode mode at 700 those beasts equal the "authority" of Ralph's OTLs and considerably more cost. Just go figure.

Thanks Atmasphere. Wish I could remember where I saw that article.

i have auditioned three class a amps. they sound different. my favorite was wonderful from 200hz and below, ok from 200 hz to the upper midrange and unsatisfactory from around 1000hz and higher.

i have owned and auditioned class d amps and other non class a solid state amps. i have a problem with ss amps in the upper mids/lower treble and with all but the most "well behaved" tube amps.

it is possible that some class a amps may be "kinder to the ear" in the mid range region, but too many are not.

hi detlof:

i owned the ml 2s, i believe it was called, 25 watts of class a. i used them with a pair of quad 57s. they were not my amp of choice. the overall presentation was dry--no romance, no bloom. quads need tubes. while solid state may provide good bass response, i would not want to listen to violins, harsichords or cymbals.

Hello MrT,
Yes you are right, they were called ML-2s. I had forgotten and yes, they sounded a tad dry, you are right there too, but at that time I could live with that because of their finesse and speed and I stuck with them until I discovered Jadis. You should try to audition a pair of Jadis 30 watt monos for your Quads. You might like them.