To the person who stated that the Classe DR-3 was the only pure class A amplifier designed by David Reich: David also designed the DR-2, DR-3B and DR-3 VHC (short for very high current 45 wpc pure class A amplifier). All are now highly collectible sonic works of art. In the class of early Mark Levinson gear like the ML-2's but far more reasonably priced.
The only draw backs to these early Classe amps are the tremendous heat that they give off and the large amounts of current that they use -- they are very inefficent designs, yet sound very much like good tube amplification.
Back in the early 1990's I owned a DR3-VHC and later a DR-2.
Both were built like tanks; beautifully engineered and constructed.
The DR-9 is an excellent amplifier; also built extremely well. However, it is not a pure class A design and probably gives up just a bit in the way of sound quality as a result of it. Yet, it is still a superb piece of hi-fi gear. Had I not owned the aforementioned DR's (hard acts to follow) I would be even more impressed with it.
As for the newer Class A gear, it's still very nicely built. However construction is now more to a price point than it was back in the early 1980's, when David Reich made his company famous, by building the best amplifiers he knew how to. His creativity in the early Class A line of amplifiers and preamplifiers still draws the attention of hi-fi enthusiasts the world over. His amplifiers were (and still are) that impressive.
The only draw backs to these early Classe amps are the tremendous heat that they give off and the large amounts of current that they use -- they are very inefficent designs, yet sound very much like good tube amplification.
Back in the early 1990's I owned a DR3-VHC and later a DR-2.
Both were built like tanks; beautifully engineered and constructed.
The DR-9 is an excellent amplifier; also built extremely well. However, it is not a pure class A design and probably gives up just a bit in the way of sound quality as a result of it. Yet, it is still a superb piece of hi-fi gear. Had I not owned the aforementioned DR's (hard acts to follow) I would be even more impressed with it.
As for the newer Class A gear, it's still very nicely built. However construction is now more to a price point than it was back in the early 1980's, when David Reich made his company famous, by building the best amplifiers he knew how to. His creativity in the early Class A line of amplifiers and preamplifiers still draws the attention of hi-fi enthusiasts the world over. His amplifiers were (and still are) that impressive.