Class A amplifiers - which are considered the best


I have heard Accuphase makes the highest quality pure class A amplifiers. Wanted to get some feedback on folks experience with their amps and any other amp manufacturers that would be in their league (or better) for class a amps. thanks
Ag insider logo xs@2xdangelod
"Goes to show that others are stretching a long bow when they quote class a figures"

Amen.
Geoegelohi,

Great job! I am sure it sounds incredible. My next step is building some speakers.
there are a few amps that run Class A up to between 10 and 25 watts before switching to Class A/B. But 25 watts in a 90db efficient speaker is about 103db, which is pretty loud on an average. In fact, at normal listening levels, you might not hit 103db even on peaks or heavy bass notes. Those amps dont use as much power when idling and dont get quite as not. My Dussun V6i, Musical Fidelity M3, Nobis Convigore and Classe 100 all run that way and sound pretty good.
03-02-12: :Manitunc. Those amps don't use as much power when idling and don't get quite as not. My Dussun V6i, Musical Fidelity M3, Nobis Convigore and Classe 100 all run that way and sound pretty good. Manitunc:

If they don't run hot then they are not biased very high into Class A, maybe just a few watts depending on heatsink area.

"Ohms Law" simply put for the non technical to understand,
A 25 watt "only" pure class A biased amp needs X amount of heatsink area as the ML2's have I posted the link to.

A 100-150watt class a/b amp with 25watts of pure Class A bias needs up to 4 x the amount of heatsink area, even though the class A is the same as the ML2's, because the rail voltages are so much higher for the extra a/b watts, this quadruples the heat, even though it's still only 25 watts Class A.

Then there's the sliding (Plateau Biasing) Class A amps like Krell developed, but they were never as good sounding as their Pure Class A classics, like the old KSA50 KSA80 and KSA100 monoblocks all with fan forced cooling with no external heatsinks, just chimney's inside with fans at the bottom.

Cheers George
Goerge, Krell had some Class A amps sans fans before Plateau Biasing, yes, with copious heat sinks. Still amongst my favorites.