What qualities do you look for in a good amp?

I've gone over to SET amps, so what I look for isn't so much technical as musical. A liquid midrange without being syrupy, a smooth, sweet treble, and adequate bass extension are fundamentally important. Palpable imaging goes without saying, along with a sense of realism and naturalness. On the technical side low noise is a must, given that the speakers will be quite efficient, and adequate input sensitivity to mate with my favoured transformer passive line stage.

A pretty face, a great rack, and a nice round caboose.

Insightfull answer Gunbei! Let's not forget that all important, head...room. Time for Football!

A nice, thick brushed metal faceplate with deeply engraved logo, and some really slick blue lights and LED's....oh, and those big, gnarly gold-plated terminals out back.....yeah, and those analogue meters to let you know how much g-force they're pullin'. And they gotta be real big and heavy so they aren't dwarfed by my thick, long speaker cables and power cords. Lot'sa them sharp cooling fins too to make it real stealthy looking. And it's gotta cost a butload of cash too, at least as much as your car...braggin' rights and all you know. Oh, and as a consession to my wife it has to go with the wood floors and leather couch.

Yeah, that's the ticket!

Marco

1. Highest possible performance

2. Doesn’t blow up very often.