Thinking of buying a solid state amp

I personally don't think that ANY solid state amp sounds like a tube amp, though, many do, nonetheless, sound good to me. The true Class A solid state amps will also run hot, so they may be out of the running. Some of the brands of solid state amps that I personally like, though I would not call them warm sounding, include Ayre, Belles, Dartzeel (quite pricey). The older, non-Class D Rowlands were quite warm sounding, though a bit dynamically dull for my taste.

If you really like the sound of the BAT tube gear, you should at least give there solid state stuff a listen to, regardless of what others may think of how it compares to other gear. To a large extent, the sound of gear is "voiced" by the designer, so the same designer would have similar sounding gear even if the designs are radically different.

I've only heard early iterations of the Bel Canto and Rowland Class-D amps, and neither sounded very good to me. But, I am sure the technology has advanced considerably, so you should certainly consider them, particularly because of their low power consumption and very low heat dissipation.

Good luck in your search.

Semi,
you say:
>>> As for Pass X350.5 or XA.5, I am aware of the heat they generate but they are still cooler than BAT 150SE. <<<

That so?!
I got a 350.5 and it gets hot in the summer period that you can hardly touch it!
In fact that big mother heats it's environment (the room ~ 300 sq. foot) with doors open and passage with no door so I start getting close to heat exhaustion, not a joke!
If the 150SE is supposed to get any more hot, I'd say it's illegal, > 70 deg. Celsius is not legal any more (at least in Europe)
Cheers,

You can never have too much power! Keep your BAT and invest in a good quite air conditioning system.

Axelwhahl, two of my friends own 350.5 and I didn't notice excessive amount of heat coming from the amp when I am there. maybe the open layout removed heat from listening room quite effectively, but I will for sure pay closer attention next time I am there. I used to own X350, it certainly did not raise the ambient temp as much as single BAT 75SE.

Madhf, that's what I am inclined to do. keep my BAT, buy a class D for the days I am not running AC full blown. but if I can find some SS that comes really close, I might make the switch.

Larryi, I considered Ayre and Dartzeel before. from what I read, both are not designed to drive difficult load even the MX-R. I owned Rowland 8Ti HC before, even the HC version was too "slow" sounding to my ears. smooth it was, but quite boring like you pointed out.

Semi, none of the current class D amps that I have heard can be deemed slow, including the current breed of JRDG products. Nimbleness and authority on difficult speakers seems to be a common characteristic of class D amplification, as it is shared by all amps of this type I have heard: NuForce, Spectron, Bel Canto, Channel Island, Wired4Sound to name a few. The problem of early class D designs was rather a certain lack of harmonic development, only moderate microdynamics, and a slight dryness in the treble. The result was that early class D amps were not very involving and sounded 'matter of fact'. It was a matter of learning curve. . . Some manufacturers have addressed these issues by designing a variety of strategies, including various forms of pre power supply rectification: e.g. Bel Canto Ref 500 and Ref 1000 Mk.2 monos. I believe Spectron may be doing something like that in its designs as well. Rowland uses a rectification variant called Active Power Factor Correction (PFC) in some of its newest models. . . but the problem remained for his earlier designs like the 201 and 501 monos. . . so he created an external unit for performing PFC rectification for the 201 and 501. . . and that is the PC-1 device. Unless you want to go over the $10K mark, within class D amplifiers, you may have a look at one of the newest Spectron variants, BC Ref 1000 Mk.2, and Rowland 501 augmented by twin PC-1s. Above that price point there are at least the Spectron monoblocks and the Rowland 312--the latter being my reference amp. In the $30K+ range, class D amps to look at are at least the Rowland 301 monoblocks (configured for low impedance speakers), and the Levinson No. 54. Happy hunting! G.