Should I buy a Class A Amp.

Use your own ears to decide. Lots of very well meaning members here who know a LOT about audio and they base their opinions on their ears but in the end it is about YOUR ears. I like to use the analogy of wine tasting and taste buds. A great wine for you is one that taste great to you.

If a friend of mine asked me if he should buy a class A amp I would say don't do it unless you know you have to because you have speakers that really need class A. And I assume you already know that amp / speaker pairing is so critical. The best amp with the wrong speaker will still sound like crap.

Do you have a local audio club in your area. It is a great way to get exposure and listening opportunities to high end amps.

This is just my opinion, but I think I have heard probably more amps than most people on here, having been in the high end business for 25 years.  Not much I haven't heard.

The absolute best amps that I have owned and heard have been Class A amps.  Something special about that design.  They do suck power and run extremely hot, (the hotter they are, the better they sound).

However, I do agree with the comments above about hearing them in your own system, in your own room, with your own music.

May not be your cup o' tea?

Once you've lived with a "good" pure Class A solid state amp it's hard to go back even to a highly biased Class A a/b amp.
The sound just seems to envelop you from speakers with an ease, without being drawn to them, that the sound is coming from elsewhere in the sound stage rather than emanating from them.

Cheers George  

Don't be fooled by different amp designs.  Some Class A amps sound terrible, some Class AB sound wonderful.  Those are not the only designs out there.  And there are a lot of variations to those designs.  You need to listen to specific amps in your system to determine what you like. 

What is very important is the matching of the amp to the upstream and downstream components.  The amp MUST have a sufficiently high input impedance to allow the preamp to drive it.  Give yourself a chance to upgrade to a high output impedance tube preamp if you want. 

The amp must be stable into the bizarre loads presented to it by the speakers.  Give yourself a chance to change speakers without creating an issue with speaker matching.

Good amps will have high input impedance and run stable into a very wide range of resistive, inductive and capacitative loads. 

Not trying to start a flame war, but I personally don't think the Krell is a particularly good amp, certainly nothing to write home about.  IMO, certain speakers might sound OK, but the speakers have to cover the Krell's shortcomings.  Just my opinion.  YMMV. 

Hi Mitch!

I don’t think we’re saying anything differently, but there was a minor miscommunication.

I don’t mean that Class-A has gotten worse, but rather, the gap between Class A and other amplifier technology has gotten smaller thanks to non-pure Class A amplifiers getting better.  As a result some of the sheen has rubbed off the "Class-A" brand.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Best,


Erik