Should I buy a Class A Amp.


I would Love to buy a Class A Amp. I have a Sony Tan-80ES Amp right now and I have had it for 19 yrs. To me it sounds Great but I am curious about Class A Amps. Do they really sound better? I am looking at a Krell KSA 200 Amp right now for $2000.00. It is older then my Sony. Is this too much for such an old Amp? Would Love to hear members thoughts on this.  

Blessings, ..........Don.
donplatt
I don't think Class A is what it used to be. :) That is, amplifiers are a lot better. I traded an amp that was Class A up to 35 Watts for an ICEPower unit and never regretted it.  It's better for my power bill and the planet. :)

Personally, I find Krell to be powerful, but not particularly interesting, and the age of the KSA 200 makes it way overpriced to me.

Save your money.  If you want an amplifier that adds to your experience, as opposed to just transmits the music, maybe a tube amp would be worth listening to.  If you must have Class-A, then the Pass amps are probably going to be the best exemplars. For afford-ability, how about a Parasound A21, class A until 20 watts or so.  Very neutral.

If you want to be a bit of a geek ( and who doesn't? ) The Ncore monoblock kits are running around $1,200 US for a stereo pair. IMHO a much better investment than an old Krell, unless you happen to have the Apogee Scintilla's to go with them. :)

Godesses, I hope this starts a flame war worth having. :)

Best,


Erik
I would either go with the latest Class D or pick up the pair of Mcintosh MC 60s on eBay right now. I have both and although they are a little different in their own way, both are probably more dependable and sound better than a dated Krell/transistor amp. 

donplatt

Hi, although I like Krells very much there were only two that were real Class A the other were either "high" biased into Class A or sliding (plataue) bias types.
These two Krell that were real Class A were the ones that were fan forced cooled (no heatsinks on the outside) and were the KSA-50 and KSA-100 which may have come as monoblock form as well.

http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/985krell/#wCIDLgktMRqomRuM.97

http://img.canuckaudiomart.com/uploads/large/853586-krell-ksa-100-mk2-completely-rebuilt.jpg

Cheers George