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"Warm Sounding" Solid State Amplifiers

As a Canadian I am naturally a huge fan of Bryston products but not long ago I switched things up for a NAD C355BEE integrated amp and instantly realized what I had been missing in terms of warmth, sweetness and overall pleasant sound.

I'm interested in moving up from there into some Class A or A/B amps but I don't know of any other warm sounding Solid State amps other than Pass Labs which are out of my price range at the moment.

Tubes are obviously "where it's at" as they would say but the maintenance factor is somewhat of a deterrent for me. Should I just go for an M series NAD amp or is there another intermediate product between that and Pass Labs??
pontifex
ricred1
1,992 posts
 
My friend has access to several companies and really likes the NAD Masters series
nanotweeter
55 posts
 
I have found that, in general but not always, solid state amps with MOSFET outputs sound somewhat warmer althought slightly less transparent than bipolar output transistors. One relatively inexpensive power amp with bipolar output transistors that I think leans just a bit to the warmer side is the Cambridge 851w stereo power amp. And it mainains that transparancy and detail that I like. Naturally your system's MMV. Crutchfield and other retailers that sell this amp offer 30 or 60 day in-home trials. Don't wait for one to come up for sale used. I have looked since December and have not seen a single one for sale on any of the US preowned equipment sites.
pontifex OP
31 posts
 
Thanks everyone. I will likely stick with NAD then but I plan to look into the other brands mentioned to gain a bit of knowledge.

A friend of mine owns a NAD M3. He loves it but he's had to send it out for repairs 2 or 3 times and was not terribly impressed with their service department. Can anyone comment on that?
zd542
5,339 posts
 
Did you list your system? I didn't see in any of your posts?
jafant
19,036 posts
 
Pontiflex-

the best solid-state right now is, Pass labs. Otherwise,
look into Parasound, Threshold, Theta and Classe' for openers. Keep me posted & Happy Listening!
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