Recommendations for good Class A SS Amp 100-200W


I had been very impress by my friends set up where he bi-amps his celestion SL6000 speaker with a pair of Krells - KSA100 & KSA250. Both are class A and I haven't heard bass slam like his set up since.

I now have gotten hold of a pair of Celestion SL6000 but I haven't been able to reproduce the bass slam and solidity I remember in my friends set up. I'm driving mine with Ampzilla 2000 MK2 and Mccormick DNA 500. Both have 2-3x the power ratings of the Krell.

I'm suspecting it may be due to the Krell's Class A bias. So looking to find a pair of amps that may better suit the Celestion 6000's. I have a pair of VTL 450MB which I intend to switch in soon, but haven't gotten around to it yet. That may do the trick for me as well, but need to find out.

I know I can find Krell's like my what my friend has easy enough, but I know Plinius and others are making SS class A maps still. So wondering if anyone has experience with the more modern Class A SS amps and if anyone can comment on how these compare with the old Krells.

Gerald
geraldedison
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 thatÂ’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.
Thanks for all the suggestions and insight.

perhaps I should provide a bit more context of my set up and room situation.

My set up is::

PS PWD Dac =>Joles Electra LA-150MKII => Ampzilla 2000MKII => Celestion SL600; McCormick DNA 500 => Celestion 6000 subs

The Celestion sl6000 system is a monitor+di-pole sub combo, where the monitor is a SL600 and the 6000 subs; So I pretty much have to bi-amp.

My set up is in a dedicated music room ~ 22x26x8 with a fair amount of sound treatment. I have 2'x6' bass traps in 3 corners of the room and sound panels in the other four walls.

I did move the bass traps out of the corners of the room to test things out. There was more bass, but not the slam level that I'm still seeking. To be clear, it isn't deep bass I'm missing it is that slam factor as mentioned above.

I recognize the Krells are know for slam and dynamics but the Ampzilla and McCormick had been know for being high current amps too. This is why I'm some what puzzle especially because my friends amps were just 100w & 200w krell's and the Ampzilla is 300W and the McCormic is 500w into 8 ohms.

I had ran the system using my PS PWD direct into my amps just to make sure the Joules Electra was not the factor as the Joules is a tube pre. There wasn't any noticeable loss of bass when I had the joules in the path, so it stay.

Both the McCormick and Ampzilla had served me well with many hard to drive speakers including ribbons and electrostats. I'm some what stun that a cone speaker would be tame by these beastly amps.

Do Krell's really have such dominance in the slam department that even well design amps such as mine are not in the same league?!

Would love to hear from someone who has heard my amps and Krell's to tell me if I'm just going down the garden path here.