Difference between Forte 4 and 4A amp ?

All this glowing talk of the Forte amps leaves me a little perplexed as I purchased a Model 6 new in 11/91, replacing a Heath amp, and although it was better than the Heath, I struggled through the 90's with a system I didn't like. I was using a Forte Model 2 preamp and I used several different speakers trying to be pleased with my system (Mirage M3's, Linn Keildh's, Linn AV5140's). In 8/97 I replaced the Forte 6 with a Meridian 557 and found a huge improvement and was much happier with my system and felt I wasted a lot of years, and money, sticking with the Forte.

Sean, a couple notes of clarification and a small disclaimer. First the disclaimer, I am not being critcal of what all is being said here, I am just sharing my experiences.

Sean said, "As to Brian's amp, it might have simply been a "lemon" or didn't blend well with the rest of his gear and various cabling. You would think that a pre / power amp combo from the same company would blend well together, but not necessarily so. Like anything else, it is all about system synergy and personal preference."

I don't think it was a lemon for the fact that I had to send it in for repair at one time and I would think they would test it after the repair. As for not blending well with the rest of the system, I used many speakers, as stated, many CD players and two different speaker cable setups. When I installed the Meridian 557, changing nothing else, the system was MUCH better, it had much more low end, which was my biggest complaint for years, and the sound was improved in all areas.

"That is why so many of us stress "in-home auditions".

I did bring this home and try it before purchasing it. I had also brought home other amps before the Forte, this was the first to clearly outperform the amp I was using. Where I went wrong was, even though it outperformed the other, it still lacked the low end I would of liked. I bought it simply because it had more detail.

For the record, I stated this above, but in lieu of Sean's comments, here is the speakers I used with the Model 6.

* Mirage M3's
* Linn Keilidh's
* Linn AV5140's

Speaker cables:
* Audio Quest Midnight for lows and Cardas Quadlink 5 for mid/highs.
* Linn K400

If what Sean says is true, I have no reason to doubt, it would cause me to shy away from such a touching product. It sounds by the comments from others, that it can be a nice sounding amp under the right conditions. As with Sas_Quach, I too suffered from very little low end.