best class a amp for a grand?


Looking to buy amp for second system for 1000 bucks on the used market. Room size is 10x12, primarily streaming music. Speakers are some energy pro 22 and preamp is an ocm 55. Im thinking maybe a belles would fit nice but wanted some other opinions. Thanks and god bless.
magnus89

Showing 5 responses by pubul57

Pass Aleph is MUCH more likely to come up for sale (plentiful) and capacitors should be in much better shape, if not replaced, than the Fortes that come up. You mentioned Belles, but I can't think of a Class A Belles that would come in at the price. Can 30 watts drive the Energy Pro 22s? Do they have a smooth and highish impedance for tubes? I think they were 89db, if so you should be fine, but maybe not for the Almarro previously mentioned - depending on room size and how loud you listen to music.
That would be fine. You would need an F5 or J or J2 or M2 - I think the other ones would be under powered. I do think clone is the wrong word, they are Nelson Pass originals and further refinements upon the orignal Aleph 3 and 30, especially the J. There is a fella named Rawson that has produce a series of Pass/First Watt clones that can be had for less when they come up on Agon - they are likely to perform similarly.
If you want an NP design and 30 watts of pure single ended class A is enough power I would look for a used Aleph 3 or Aleph 30. I've not heard the Forte 4A, but there are those that love it. I'm not sure NP had much to do with its design, as it uses IGBT transistors that he felt were not appropriate for audio use - I have no idea why he felt that way. If you are willing to buy something 15+ years old (like the Forte 4/4As) you might then also want to consider the BEL 1001s, which is arguably Class A and some to swear it is the best sounding SS amp ever made.
BEL and Belles are two different companies. Unfortunately, the designer of the BEL passed away a year or two ago. The Belles amps I heard sounded very good, but they were not the new Class amps they have come out with recently, but I imagine they would be considerably over budget. Belles are very easy to drive as I think they are 100kohm input impedance and should work with just about any preamp, including tube preamps:)