Modwright KWA 150

You may want to cruise over to AudioCicle and check the Modwright Circle. They are currently allowing prospective customers to audition an amp (and maybe a preamp) just for the cost of shipping. I just signed on, as I'm curious about their gear. I'm not anticipating the preamp/amp combo will sound as good as what I'm using currently, but it's worth the cost of shipping to find out. Look for the "on tour" thread.

Thanks, Jax. I've been at this for a quite a while now and I think I've finally got a system that will satisfy for the long haul. I am indebted to Lou, Dan and Keith for their patient and valuable advice and for their talent and passion for what they do. As for Acdvd's question about connections, Dan feels that as a true balanced design, the LS36.5 is best connected to the KWA150 via balanced cables with the rest of the components connected to the LS36.5 via single ended wire. I followed his advice and that is how I have everything wired up.

One final question on this amp before I go ahead and purchase - how good is the bass authority and speed and tightness compared to other solid state power amps in its class

I came to the Modwright from being a tube guy, so can't add much to what I've already said regarding your last question here. The only direct comparison I've done to another SS amp was to an Ayre V5XE, which is another SS amp that I really liked, but the KWA150 did certainly excel in bass authority to that particular amp. I was considering buying the Ayre and had it in my system for about a week and liked it, but decided to keep my KWA150 because I preferred it to the Ayre overall. The Ayre had a slightly softer presentation - a bit less resolving perhaps, but very musical and engaging and not typically SS. It's an A/B amp, but reminded me more of a class A amp. Nonetheless, I preferred the greater resolution of the Modwright, since it was not at the sacrifice of any of the qualities I enjoyed about the Ayre. It also did do better at bass, and marginally better at soundstaging (though that was a close call). I was using the Coincident speakers at that time (double 8" side firing bass drivers). Other than that, I've done no direct comparing to comment on such a question, but hearing it playing with Lou's speakers one would never say that it was even remotely lacking in the bass department, especially the Ulysses. Perhaps someone else has made some direct SS comparisons. You might check the Modwright forums, mentioned previously, as well. Good luck!

In my system the KWA150 offers superlative performance on the bottom end. My last amp was an ARC SD135 and while I've made other system changes (particularly the addition of Lou's All Poly crossover option) that do not allow me to make a direct comparison between the two, I can say that the KWA will likely not disappoint in this area. But again, I really think you ought to be thinking about the amp and speakers systemically since this is one of the most important interactions in your system chain. While the KWA150 is an amp that I imagine will work very nicely with a wide variety of speakers, you really should try to approach the decision on these two components as if they are one.