solid state vs tubes

Atmasphere, silly me, I forgot about the Macs. I was referring to the Pass M2.

Interesting read with lots of opinions but there is more to it than just the amp and in the end just that opinions and really no right or wrong.

That being said I replaced my CAT JL3 Sig. MKII mono blocks $40K with the new Bryston Squared 28's less than half the list price and I'm very pleased, I have not found any other amps no matter what price and/or design and I have had allot of world class pces making me want to change, my speakers are MBL 101E's. I'm after getting the most out of my speakers.

I know of others whom have been trying these amps and have been pleasently surprised also so you might want to try. My preference is haveing solid state paired up with a tube pre, I'm currently using a VAC Sig. MK2a and truely enjoying.

Another member said this;

09-26-10: Bryceeboy

The first time I ever got what the SET group was raving about was when I inserted the 28B Squared into my system. I am a tube guy through and through but when I placed these in my system nothing had come close in the past. I own Soundlab A-1's which are a bear to drive but these things can make them growl or purr like a kitty. Great amps IMHO! Good luck.

Dev,

In your case those mbls would pretty much dictate SS amplification.

BTW you are a lucky guy. Nothing does 3-d imaging of large scale classical recordings as holographically as the larger mbls I have heard.

i will repeat, i am not looking for tube-like per se, but rather to be unable to detect the difference between a ss and tube amp, driving a pair of planar speakers.

i might be able to find a ss amp which exhibits tube like characteristics, yet it may also exhibit ss aspects. that is not my goal.

i'll give a crude analogy.

suppose i have an apple. i like to find another fruit that tastes like an apple that is not an apple.

from what i have read so far it is virtually impossible.

MrT, there was a time when planars ruled the roost when it comes to resolution. That time has passed- there are a good number of cone systems now that easily compete with the best planars.

However, my comments were more the point that if you had a 16 ohm planar, any amp that you have tried so far would sound better on such a speaker.

IMO, one of the most musical transistor amps that is also reasonably priced are the zero-feedback Pass amplifiers, particularly the First-Watt amps. The Ayre is another good choice. So far the best I have heard, better than most tube amps, is the Ridley Audio amplifier. Beyond that, most transistor amps that employ large amounts of feedback are going to sound a lot more like each other than they will like anything else, including tubes.

I should point out though that the 3 amps I listed also are known for making heat, as the simple fact of the matter is that class A operation is part of how these amps manage to sound right. In fact, the Ridley employs a heater to raise and regulate the heat of the output devices. So other than occasional tube replacement, IMO you might as well have a tube amp, if quality sound like real music is your goal...