Mosfet amps A true compromise betw. tubes and SS?

Listen to Chaz. Speaking of Pass, I enjoy both tube and Mosfet worlds the economical way. This is how: First get a solid state amp with the least signature. My choice is the Pass X. The guys at Pass Labs told me the X amps are on the lean side (and so they came up with the class A XA). I humbly disagree. The X amp is so transparent to the incoming signal (check the Pass Labs site to see why), that you can taylor the music any way you want with your front end. I use a cd player with a tube power stage. After a bit of tube rolling, I have landed the sweetest (tube) sound with all the black back ground, world class dynamics and bass control of a Mosfet powered amp.

You may be right, Ral, and very soon I will be trying class A mono blocks. I do not agree about the need for tubes in the amp. The Pass X takes what it is fed and simply amplifies while not adding any character of its own.

I am very familiar with the Llano Trinity hybrid, and it mystifies me. No electrical engineer I know believes the Trinity is a class A amp. Not with it's diminutive heat sinks and cool running temperatures. I'm trying to get one over to my place for an audition anyway. A friend of mine is using Telefunken tubes with his. Hearing it at his place, I can't come to any certain conclusion of it's overall worth.

My Apogee Duetta Signature speakers have a rich sound on their own. I've found straight tube amps to be too slow and sticky with the Duetta. The Pass X is the cleanest sounding solid state bar none. It has no character. Coupled with my ribbon speakers and great tubes, the combination is as real as it gets.... With cd material.

I have run straight tubes on slightly brash Apogee Stage speakers, and that had the same synergy in the mids as my Pass plus Duettas. What I want is all the liquid mids of the tubes without the syrup. Mating a tube signal to a sonically passive amp has worked well for me.

oops, Ral, I gave you the wrong idea. I tried a tube pre (Sonic Frontiers) but found the solid state Aleph P more to my liking. Like it's brethren, the X amp, it has a relatively benign sonic stamp. I'm controlling the character of what I am listening to with a Jolida JD-100. With the correct NOS tubes installed, Telefunken, RCA, Siemens, Syvania, this is an inexpensive musical wonder. Ral, I wonder if you have found, like me, Mullards are poor sounding in a revealing system.

By the way, Maggies are great. Biamping is the norm for Apogee users as well.

The Jolida JD-100 is a cd player. I hate to harp on amps again, but according to experts I trust in the field, the Pass X amps are the cleanest amp built due to it's DC circuitry throughout, accomplished by not using the usual amp builder's crutches, like detail robbing feedback and step up capacitors. Nelson's ingenious utilization of his super symmetry finishes the job. With the help of the tube cd player, I enjoy all the points on our collective wish list, except perhaps Krell like bass slam. That's not something I miss.

Given the Pass amp is colorless, I can control the sound with my cd player tubes. Like you, I find tube selection critical for my listening enjoyment. The 12ATX7 Mullards CV4004 tubes were not grainy, and were quite musical. The trouble I had with them was they starved my system of micro detail. Mullard tubes are visually flimsy. JAN Phillip tubes gave better detail. I am using 1950s Sylvania 5751 tubes which are purposely built to defeat microphonics. At $45 apiece, (if you can find them) they are a bargain Telefunken, full liquid mids, sweet highs, and a seductive bass.

Nearly all multi stage amps need a capacitor in line to facilitate the bridge between the two. The trouble is, any capacitor or resistor in line with the signal is going to add it's own degradation of the signal.

It isn't easy to create a circuit with no resistors or capacitors in line with the signal. The Pass X and XA series not only do without, any bit of distortion getting through is canceled at the output through Supersymmetry.

Zaikesman, sorry, that was something I got off of a review a long time ago, and I never bothered to look it up. There are resistors, a few, in line. Resistors are passive.

The two stages of Pass X amps are direct coupled.