Solid State Vs Tube; Analog Vs Digital; Class A Vs Class A/B

Dear DD,

There are many serious audiophile and members with many years of experience on this forum & the way to go about your three questions is that I would first ask you to pull out your favourite 5 CDs and do needful.

1. Go and listen to a Tube & SS amp side by side with the same front end/spks, if possible. Try a few dealers in Mumbai, if that were you are from, otherwise ask some members who have both type of amps and give a listen. After you do that tell me what are the difference you heard in simple plain english, weather ur a layman or an audiophile (upcoming).

2. Try and hear or get a demo of a Pure Class A amp and compare it with a Class AB amp, again same front end, same spks etc.

3. Regarding Digital/analogue amps,. Yes the new digital amps from TRIPATH TEch, invented by an indian called Dr. Tripathi are supposed to be amazing. Audio Research uses them in some of their models. Very powerful and compact. (havent heard a full digital amp, so I cannot say much . (hate to comment on products that I have not listened to, unlike some of our forum members ) Another company that makes digital amps is the ICEPOWER used by B&O as well as Jeff Rowlands in some models like their cute 500W amp that about the same size like a MAC MINI.

I doubt it if you can get a demo of a digital amp in India, unless someone has got another famous one doing the rounds which is the CLASS T amp found on TNT Audio. Visit this site you will get loads of info.

My personal take & preference is a nice pure CLass A amp eitherr Tube or SS will do. Especially after hearing the PLINIUS SA-102 in Class A mode, its one of my fav , sadly their SA-250 MK4 is no more made. For Tube, the best Class A amp I heard was the VA-1 (20W pure class A), The VA-1HP was not to my liking. Even the CANASYA is amazin in class a mode till 50W Rms.

Heard a Gryphon, well thats in esoteric range. Will cost u 50,000 USD each for their Ref range. (get a nice rich Father in law or win a huge lottery DD). Oh yes its worth it to me to go in for a CLASS A amp anytime. The improvement is not subtle but huge. This is my take on this. However I am sure many forum members are open to their personal opinions.

Also remember that its the music that comes first. Also what type of music do you listen to? etc etc.

Rgds

Prithvi

Prithvi schrieb:

I doubt it if you can get a demo of a digital amp in India, unless someone has got another famous one doing the rounds which is the CLASS T amp found on TNT Audio. Visit this site you will get loads of info.

Prithvi, Guess what, I just bought a Sonic Impact T-Amp
Unfortunately do not have the speakers to demo it yet


Dare_Devil,
Your questions are too generic for me to offer any opinion other that my own..and each one of those questions have the capability to handle a long thread on their own

1. regarding Tubes Vs SS. very oft repeated dicsussion in innumerable forums, with lots of views in either camp..you nede to decide which one you want to be in ! Love the sound of tubes but ones with the slam factor were too expensive for me..

2. Very similiar to above Question but not enough views on this yet. Dig amps are too early. Main ones are T Amp, Nuforce, Flying moles and the newest being Dr Amp .
I liked the sound of one, but I dont like it over my amp, although would consider them much better than the entry level NAD/Rotel/marantz but produce very low power..and once they conk off, u need to buy a new one!

3.Well i presonally prefer pure class A and hence own one.. but there are others who love and live otherwise as well ;).

But in all of the above, it is not the class but the IMPLEMENTATION which is important

hence
-SS can sound warmer than some tubes
-Some tubes have a better slam than many SS
-Some digital are more smooth sounding that tube amps
-Some Class AB with low bias sound more seductive than some Pure class A
... and so on

Hey Arj,
Have you got yourself a new pair of speakers as yet ?

K