MrT, there was a time when planars ruled the roost when it comes to resolution. That time has passed- there are a good number of cone systems now that easily compete with the best planars.
However, my comments were more the point that if you had a 16 ohm planar, any amp that you have tried so far would sound better on such a speaker.
IMO, one of the most musical transistor amps that is also reasonably priced are the zero-feedback Pass amplifiers, particularly the First-Watt amps. The Ayre is another good choice. So far the best I have heard, better than most tube amps, is the Ridley Audio amplifier. Beyond that, most transistor amps that employ large amounts of feedback are going to sound a lot more like each other than they will like anything else, including tubes.
I should point out though that the 3 amps I listed also are known for making heat, as the simple fact of the matter is that class A operation is part of how these amps manage to sound right. In fact, the Ridley employs a heater to raise and regulate the heat of the output devices. So other than occasional tube replacement, IMO you might as well have a tube amp, if quality sound like real music is your goal...
