Why do I like Class AB better than Class A?

Hey, thanks for all the feedback. I have Snell type AIII's, now I know there not very efficient but this amp certainly has brought more bottom end slam than my BAT. The rest, AIFF,Pure music, MacMini, Wyred4sound DAC 2, Aesthetix Calypso Pre with Nos Tubes, oh and dedicated 20 amp outlets plugged straight in. I was hoping someone would tell me I would need to get used to the class A sound. I will let her warm up more than the hour I usually give it and see what happens.

Most transistor gear I have seen really have long warm-up times- 24 hours or more.

Theoretically class A gives you lower distortion. When you remove distortion, the amp should sound smoother and more detailed as distortion can result in harshness and obscures detail due to the ear's masking rule.

Now when you get more detail, one of the things that happens is that there is more room ambiance that shows up. There is more of the acoustic signature around each instrument. This can make the amp seem to have less image specificity, until you realize that the image is being presented with more of the ambiance around it intact.

I'm sorry, maybe I'm slow or missing something. but your initial post said that you compared both with a toggle switch. Compared both what? I only saw one amp. So, my initial reaction without benefit of knowing which two amps you are talking about is that you compared apples to oranges. The amps were either not rated the same or they were in totally different price points. Like comparing a $10,000 amp with a $400 Yamaha 100wpc amp. I don't know what you compared.

Enjoy

Minorl,

you can flick a switch on the Plinius and change it between class A or class A/B, one amp offers both functions

Minor1, there are some amps out there that have a switch between high bias (Class A) and low bias (Class AB). The OP's Plinius SA-100 mk III is one such of these amps. Clayton Audio also had amps that used to do this. There may also be others that I'm not aware of. So you have the ability to switch between Class A operation and Class AB operation via a switch on the amplifier.

To answer your question: Compared both what?
He compared both forms of operation (A vs AB) that his amp is capable of. Yes, there are other forms of operation such as Class D, also.