Recommendations for good Class A SS Amp 100-200W

Gerald,

In my experience, its not the watts that matter for what you seek. Not necessarily the Class A topology either. The Krell is known for bass wallop and is a very high current design. High current (and high capacitance maybe?) usually make a big difference...i suspect in addition to bass volume, the Krell is tight-fisted as well...which means the bass has both impact and snap...the VTL should have volume and impact...as much snap i cannot say.

Get a Krell if that is what you seek...other Class A amps include Pass Labs, Gryphon, Vitus...all of which throw serious bass. I know and own Gryphon. Again i am not convinced its just about the Class A design. For just the bass element, you can also use big Brystons, or possibly Classe, Rowland.

BTW, i think Celestions are great...my first speaker was the SL6si...and i always wanted to hear the mighty SL6000 system...congrats. A seriously great system by all accounts. Enjoy.

I think you may be going about this the wrong way. As far as power ratings go, there is no standard. For example 10 different amps from 10 different companies all rated at 100 watts per channel will all put out a different amounts of power. As far as being class A, I don't think that’s it, either. You should have no problem getting the same kind of power from an AB amp.

There are so many factors that may be responsible for the results you are getting we can only guess at what the problem is. I'll list a few things that might be worth looking at.

-Other components; especially the preamp. Don't underestimate the importance of the preamp. I've literally had situations where upgrading the preamp was the equivalent of adding a subwoofer.

-Koestner says it may be the room. I agree. (Its more likely a combination of different factors, just to be more clear)

-Unless I'm mistaken, your speaker is a bookshelf/stand mounted design.

-It looks like you are biamping with 2 completely different amplifiers. I don't even know where to begin on this one except, stop. Just use 1 amp. If you can't get results with a DNA500, I'm not sure what to tell you; except..

-You just may like the sound of the old Krell amps. Many do. If that's the case, it may make sense for you to buy one. Just one. (If you must have 2 amps and biamp them, I highly recommend you buy 2 stereo amps, exactly the same, and do a vertical biamp. I don't feel its necessary, but at least you wont be doing anything that will mess up your sound quality.)

Just a suggestion- get some very clean recordings of bass guitar, pipe organ,
percussion ensembles, etc. how close your chair is from the back wall makes a huge difference in the amount of perceived bass- my listening position is far from any rear surfaces, and so i have to "live" with 90% of the bass coming from the speakers alone.
i would forget about old Krell amplifiers unless you just HAVE to have one. a KSA-250, unless you already have one and won't part with it, is pretty much a relic. anyway it would have to be refurbished to get it back to where it used to be.
your audio-memory in this case may be taking you on a long ride to nowhere.
you would have to duplicate your friend's room to fairly evaluate what you would need to do. plus a dozen other things. but i would start with the cheapest route- sit down with some excellent recordings with bass output, and not just loud (i.e. Black Sabbath).
and no insult, but if you can add a subwoofer, that would definitely solve your problem once and for all.

Pass makes some very highly lauded Class A amps.I have also heard Plinius amps they had slam as well. Slam is different than the deep bass you get from a sub.
I am not sure we need to second guess you. I always seem to like class A sound myself, go with your gut. One of the better suggestions IMO is to get a refurbished Krell from that era. If not re-capped and tuned up you may be dissapointed.

Krell's are known for their bass slam as they regulate the high voltage to the output transistors. This is mostly unheard of and very expensive to do. This makes the amp have a very low source impedance hence the bass slam. I had always felt that the older Krell's sacrificed top end performance. I would not purchase a Krell of that vintage as they wind up having capacitor issues because of the heat generated by the amp. They are also very expensive to run and dissipate a tremendous amount of heat, i.e wasted energy. If you do feel the necessity to own a Class A amp, try listening to a Pass Labs Amp. High current delivery is most important when driving a dynamic speaker and that is not necessarily a function of Class A or class B amplifiers.