Pubul57,
I too have found that smaller wattage amps will generally have a sweeter/purer sound. In decision making, I always go by my ears first then work backwards with my brain to see if there is a reason for a finding, but always ears first as they are "direct coupled" to my wallet.
This has held up even with my sub-hobby of vintage receivers. I prefer the sound of the lower watt ones to the monsters of old. What I have read (but don't know first hand) is that a lot of "music lovers" prefer the sound of the Marantz 8b to the 9's and the Mac 225 to the 275. Of course the speaker, and how loud you like it, are important factors.
I have a hunch one reason might be transistors and their non-linear characteristics. The more of them you use, the more NFB you need to get the amp to "spec" right. I personally don't like NFB.
My ears like what they hear in Pass's XA.5 series and this is from a guy who loves/has 4 SET amps. I have their 30.5 and 100.5's. Don't hear much difference beween the two. From what I've read about the design, running the Mosfets in pure class A, he can put them in their most linear range and therefore use much less feedback to correct. In his paper on the "Super Symmetry" circuit, he says he uses only a tiny bit of NFB to tweak the two circuits into balance so they cancel distortion. This may be why "his" larger amps don't lose don't lose the sweetness like other designs do. His papers on the Passlabs website are a good read.
I too have found that smaller wattage amps will generally have a sweeter/purer sound. In decision making, I always go by my ears first then work backwards with my brain to see if there is a reason for a finding, but always ears first as they are "direct coupled" to my wallet.
This has held up even with my sub-hobby of vintage receivers. I prefer the sound of the lower watt ones to the monsters of old. What I have read (but don't know first hand) is that a lot of "music lovers" prefer the sound of the Marantz 8b to the 9's and the Mac 225 to the 275. Of course the speaker, and how loud you like it, are important factors.
I have a hunch one reason might be transistors and their non-linear characteristics. The more of them you use, the more NFB you need to get the amp to "spec" right. I personally don't like NFB.
My ears like what they hear in Pass's XA.5 series and this is from a guy who loves/has 4 SET amps. I have their 30.5 and 100.5's. Don't hear much difference beween the two. From what I've read about the design, running the Mosfets in pure class A, he can put them in their most linear range and therefore use much less feedback to correct. In his paper on the "Super Symmetry" circuit, he says he uses only a tiny bit of NFB to tweak the two circuits into balance so they cancel distortion. This may be why "his" larger amps don't lose don't lose the sweetness like other designs do. His papers on the Passlabs website are a good read.