Transitioning: back to solid state....

Viggen,
such disrespectful remarks about the CA50. So it didn't get reviewed by the big glossy mags, and does not seem to fit into the current word of audiophile high fashion. But I do think you sell this thing short.

It's a VT50 with a smaller power supply(the VT50 is a VT100 mkII with 1/2 the output tubes, not a bad pedigree in my mind)and a very good SS pre section similar to an LS9 as far as I know. This is not anything to apologise about or be ambarrased to own.

Tell ya what I will send you $500 to HELP you out and take that lowest of low crappy boat anchor off your hands. Think of it as a contribution to your education(both your HiFi education and your college education).I just want to help out!

Max!!!! Buddy!!!

Actually, CA50 IS the lowest on the ARC heirarchy before their new VS series came out. Everything I said is true! No where did I claim the CA50 SUCKS!

MAX, I don't want your money, however, can you put the IEC thing on the back of my CA50 incase I want to keep it? Thanks!!

I would agree with this reviewer on Pass stuff:
pass amp

Maybe the closest thing you can get to tubes without the tubes??

He also made interesting remarks about active crossovers:

Furthermore, a speaker enclosure is not an ideal environment for a sophisticated piece of electronic equipment with all the vibration and resonance. That said, passive crossovers are still a huge limitation, making it difficult to realize what a really good amplifier can do. Okay, so what I really want is a speaker with dedicated external electronics, with zero phase shift and high bit-rate digital crossovers, feeding Meitner 1-bit converters into amplifiers like the Pass X-150 - maybe then, the speaker won't be such a weak link.

Hi Viggen,
I don't feel you need to buy expensive NOS tubes to get good sound. The modern day svetlana's sound wonderful. I've heard good things about the eh's as well. It's only a hundred bucks or so to replace the power tubes in a ca-50. If you have efficient speakers, that's one of the best sounding amps out there. You want to buy a matched quad of 6550 power tubes. If kt88's will work, you might want to consider them. Call ARC about that.

See www.thetubestore.com for good prices. If you want a little help with biasing check out the manual & search for past threads on this forum. It's a 30 minute job the first time, 15 thereafter. Make sure your test leads have rubber sheaths around them. All you need is a $20 radio shack multi-meter.

OK, I'm a bit confused here....so it seems you're frustrated with the idea of the 'maitenance' of having a tube amp. It seems like the only issue was biasing, and the cost of tubes as per your initial post. Yet you are looking for an SS amp that will give you a 'tube-sound'...or rather a tube-lovers SS amp?! You say you have speakers that are specifically geared towards tubes, but have not specified what those might be. I assume they are the Tannoy monitors, which you comment in your system profile that you LOVE. So the SS thing is purely a convenience-driven decision...yes? There are fine auto-biasing tube amplifiers that you might consider as an alternative. I don't know about your financial priorities or funds available, but it looks like you've invested in some pretty nice gear thus far. As long as you stick to used gear, you can buy and sell to your hearts content and not loose a significant amount of $ in the process (that's the grease that keeps Audiogon going isn't it?). Why not look into the tube alternatives since your known preference occurs to me in the realm of tubes (I am only inferring this by the tone of your posts)? Learning how to bias an amp sure isn't rocket science, and good tubes are pretty stable for the most part. I check my bias once a week on my work system that requires biasing, but for the amount of times I actually tweak the bias, it might as well be once a month. My 300B SET's are auto-biasing and are of the most amazing sounding amps I've ever heard. I'm not knocking SS, but my preference is clearly with tubes and I doubt I'll change. For me it's worth what small hassle it may bring, and I actually enjoy the little tweaks and changes and challenges. On another note, 30 hours doesn't occur to me as enough to break in a brand new SS amp (I'm assuming it's new since you are implying a break-in period). Give it more like 300 hours and then see what it sounds like. This stuff is supposed to be fun! If you don't like it, sell it and try something different. It's all about personal preferences, space, sound and synergy. The best you can do here is get only a hint at the latter.