non-linear Class-A amp with fun sound

[AMKAM]

Not looking for the best, but for money's worth and performance that can be heard.
Let's get real here: I don't have much in-person experience with Class-A amps, but I heard they are very powerful and linear from reviewers. From this, what I am looking for is a fun, warm sound with not much linearity and a huge sound stage with depth and width while keeping the detail, imaging, and technicalities intact. In these sound profiles, I found these amps: the EarMen CH-Amp, the Burson Audio Soloist 3X Performance, the Burson Audio Soloist 3X Grand Tourer, and the HeadAmp GS-X mini, so from these, you can see my price range maxing out at $2500. With these, I am mixing a tube amp that has full tube output, and I decided to buy the xDuoo TA-22.
Now my setup will be a DAC (Fiio K9 Pro or Cayin RU6) with balanced output to an xDuoo TA-22, which has tube-full output but with RCA out only, to a Class-A amp to balance headphones.
What will I be using this setup for? Mostly movies and TV shows.
I know I am crazy and asking for a lot, but I am very curious. I would love to have an opinion about Class-A amps in this setup and which will be best, or maybe even go in a different direction and save money.

 

[SIY]

Let's get real here: I don't have much in-person experience with Class-A amps, but I heard they are very powerful and linear from reviewers.

That's a great signal that the reviewer can be safely ignored.

 

[Koeitje]

Just use an equalizer or DSP and make it sound like you want?

 

[DSJR]

The now antique and collectable Musical Fidelity A1 was a hot running softie of an amp with distortion pushing 1% even at low levels it seemed. Some are still running, having been repaired and restored.

More internationally, Sugden have made some amps (A21se? I think it is) which sounded like a blanket had been placed over the tweeters. Audiophiles loved it...

Non Class A but widely available and cheap enough with some room for tweaking, I'd have a listen to a Quad 34/306 set that's been serviced and checked for leaky caps. Smooth, friendly and a 'nice' sound (mainly the preamp puts this character in I gather, but the power amp in good order has no 'solid state' nasties at all). Class A without the heat and electricity bills...

 

[Elitzur–Vaidman]

I'm not going to push all of the standard reasons why you should reconsider, but you might want to consider a class-A speaker amplifier and headphone adapter to keep your price lower and make resale easier.

 

[SuicideSquid]

Not looking for the best, but for money's worth and performance that can be heard.
Let's get real here: I don't have much in-person experience with Class-A amps, but I heard they are very powerful and linear from reviewers. From this, what I am looking for is a fun, warm sound with not much linearity and a huge sound stage with depth and width while keeping the detail, imaging, and technicalities intact. In these sound profiles, I found these amps: the EarMen CH-Amp, the Burson Audio Soloist 3X Performance, the Burson Audio Soloist 3X Grand Tourer, and the HeadAmp GS-X mini, so from these, you can see my price range maxing out at $2500. With these, I am mixing a tube amp that has full tube output, and I decided to buy the xDuoo TA-22.
Now my setup will be a DAC (Fiio K9 Pro or Cayin RU6) with balanced output to an xDuoo TA-22, which has tube-full output but with RCA out only, to a Class-A amp to balance headphones.
What will I be using this setup for? Mostly movies and TV shows.
I know I am crazy and asking for a lot, but I am very curious. I would love to have an opinion about Class-A amps in this setup and which will be best, or maybe even go in a different direction and save money.

Of the various solid state amplifier designs, Class A are the least efficient and the most difficult to properly design. All other things being equal, a Class A amp will give you less power, more distortion, and more noise than a Class A/B or Class D amplifier. Soundstage is primarily a function of your speakers, not your amplifier. The only way an amp is going to affect soundstage is if it has a lot of noise or crosstalk, which will shrink the soundstage. You're far more likely to get perceptible noise and crosstalk out of a Class A design than an A/B or D design.

For your described uses, there's no reason to look at anything other than a modern Class D design. If you buy a Class A amp you're just wasting electricity.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

I don't have much in-person experience with Class-A amps, but I heard they are very powerful and linear from reviewers.

They tend to be the least powerful per kilogram and per dollar.

 

[Salt]

Not looking for the best, but for money's worth and performance that can be heard.
Let's get real here: I don't have much in-person experience with Class-A amps, but I heard they are very powerful and linear from reviewers. From this, what I am looking for is a fun, warm sound with not much linearity and a huge sound stage with depth and width while keeping the detail, imaging, and technicalities intact. In these sound profiles, I found these amps:

http://www.audio-gd.com/Master/Master19/Master19EN.htm

 

[Koeitje]

http://www.audio-gd.com/Master/Master19/Master19EN.htm

Looking at the measurements that is not what he is looking for. This has a perfectly flat response, but OP doesn't want that. They want "fun".

 

[SuicideSquid]

Looking at the measurements that is not what he is looking for. This has a perfectly flat response, but OP doesn't want that. They want "fun".

The OP also asked for "a huge sound stage with depth and width while keeping the detail, imaging, and technicalities intact" for use primarily with movies and TV shows. In order to ensure your amplifier is preserving "detail, imaging and technicalities" and not masking them beneath a smear of noise and distortion, you want a device with flat response and low noise and distortion. That's a typical Class A/B or D amplifier.

 

[AMKAM]

I'm not going to push all of the standard reasons why you should reconsider, but you might want to consider a class-A speaker amplifier and headphone adapter to keep your price lower and make resale easier.

that is a good advise but sadly i am a headphone guy for now.

 

[AMKAM]

Of the various solid state amplifier designs, Class A are the least efficient and the most difficult to properly design. All other things being equal, a Class A amp will give you less power, more distortion, and more noise than a Class A/B or Class D amplifier. Soundstage is primarily a function of your speakers, not your amplifier. The only way an amp is going to affect soundstage is if it has a lot of noise or crosstalk, which will shrink the soundstage. You're far more likely to get perceptible noise and crosstalk out of a Class A design than an A/B or D design.

For your described uses, there's no reason to look at anything other than a modern Class D design. If you buy a Class A amp you're just wasting electricity.

Thanks for being straight forward. In the case of distortion and noise what are Class-A amp are for then?
when you say Class A/B amp u mean like SingXer SA-1.
NO idea about Class-D amp

 

[AMKAM]

They tend to be the least powerful per kilogram and per dollar.

is it same case when driving efficient headphones?

 

[Koeitje]

The OP also asked for "a huge sound stage with depth and width while keeping the detail, imaging, and technicalities intact" for use primarily with movies and TV shows. In order to ensure your amplifier is preserving "detail, imaging and technicalities" and not masking them beneath a smear of noise and distortion, you want a device with flat response and low noise and distortion. That's a typical Class A/B or D amplifier.

I know. @AMKAM is asking for two opposing things. I think they should have a good think about what they really want.

 

[Sokel]

Class A is not necessarily about noise and distortion.
I mean class A mic preamps and preamps in general has ruler flat FR and low THD+N.
Same with big Class A power amps,price aside.

There are a lot all though that intentionally or unintentionally have the sauce you're after,usually smaller ones.

 

[Killingbeans]

In the case of distortion and noise what are Class-A amp are for then?

As far as I can tell, Class-A is a relic of the past, from a time when designing stable feedback loops was troublesome, and zero crossing distortion was instead brute force combated by wasting tons of power on nothing.

These days Class-A amps for speakers are mostly fanservice for those who strongly believe that huge backbreaking amps automatically means better sound.

The penalty is less for headphone amps because of the tiny amounts of power involved, but still a pointless typology, IMO.

 

[DVDdoug]

Thanks for being straight forward. In the case of distortion and noise what are Class-A amp are for then?

I believe the 1st amplifiers were class-A. It's not class-A because it's better, it's because class-A because it was first, or because it's the simplest.

In the old days you'd find class-A amplifiers in radios, etc., because it takes one-less transistor (or tube) and it was cheaper to make. But when you get into higher-power amplifiers, class A/B becomes more economical because the transistor or MOSFET (or tubes) aren't stressed as much. And now the cost of transistor or MOSFET is insignificant.
I'm thinking guitar amplifier because they are usually designed to be non-linear and they are made to "sound pleasant" when over-driven into distortion. (But most of us don't want the whole band and the singer distorted.) You'd also need two for stereo and most don't have headphone outputs.


With class A/B you have (at least) two output devices, with one putting-out the positive half of the waveform and another putting-out the negative half. If it's not designed right you get "crossover distortion" when it switches between positive & negative.

The "claimed advantage" of class-A is that there's no crossover distortion. But it's not really a problem with any decent design and with two completely different designs you can't predict which one has lower distortion.

when you say Class A/B amp u mean like SingXer SA-1.

You might want to do a little research on how the various class designs work...

Briefly... With class-A current flows continuously through the transistor or MOSFET and the output voltage swings relatively positive & negative. The transistor/MOSFET is dissipating "full power" and generating heat no matter if any signal is coming out or not.

With class A/B only a small current flows when there no signal. The purpose of that "bias current" is to prevent crossover distortion. So not much power is wasted and not much heat is generated when the amp is idle or playing quietly.

NO idea about Class-D amp

Class-D is a "switching" design. The MOSFET (they rarely, if ever, use regular transistors) is switched at high frequency, above the audio range. It's never partially-on and that means that it theoretically wouldn't generate any heat or waste any energy. This isn't a perfect analogy, but you may have noticed that a light dimmer* sometimes gets warm but a regular light switch doesn't. The switch itself doesn't use any power and it stays cool with the light on or off.

With almost no energy being wasted as heat, they run more efficiently. You can use cheaper MOSFETs and smaller heatsinks and/or you can get more power to the speakers!

The high-frequency output is filtered to get smooth-analog output and the sound quality can be just as good as a Class-A or Class A/B design. (Any switching noise that leaks-through is very-low level and above the hearing range and beyond what your tweeter can reproduce.)

Class-D amplifiers are "complex", requiring many-many transistors/MOSFETs, but with the complexity built-into a chip it becomes economical.

Switching power supplies are similar to Class-D amplifiers. They are more efficient than "linear" power supplies, and you rarely get hum-problems because they are operating above the audible frequency range.



* Light dimmers also use switching technology but like class-D amplifiers they are imperfect and they generate some heat.

 

[SuicideSquid]

is it same case when driving efficient headphones?

Yes. Class A would be the worst choice for driving efficient headphones, IMO - if you just want sound with character, get a tube amp. If you want clean, low noise, low distortion, get a modern Class A/B or Class D design.

DVDDoug's primer on the various amp design topologies above is excellent.

As for what amps you should be looking into, have a search through this website's reviews index and recommended amplifiers. You will find many excellent products that fit within your budget and deliver exceptional performance.

There is a lot of misinformation out there about amplifier designs and how much they'll alter your perception of sound. A lot of this comes from the early days of audio - for example, when Class D designs first became widespread in the 90s, they had issues accurately reproducing higher frequencies, and were mostly relegated to subwoofer amps (because of their high efficiency and no issue w/high frequencies for a sub) or very inexpensive devices. However, those issues with Class D have been sorted for many years and today, the best-measuring amps on the market in terms of low noise, low distortion, accuracy, and high power output, are mostly Class D designs.

The purpose of an amplifier is to take an incoming line-level signal, and amplify it to listening levels, without otherwise altering that signal. All properly-designed solid state amps, regardless of topology, will do this without affecting things like soundstage, "detail", "air", "imaging", "warmth", or anything else, and will sound exactly the same. If an amp is altering those things it's because it's of poor design, and is introducing audible distortion and/or noise, or is causing early roll-off of high frequencies or an artificial boost of low frequencies.

 

[Salt]

Looking at the measurements that is not what he is looking for. This has a perfectly flat response, but OP doesn't want that. They want "fun".

Referring to this it what is desired:
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/audio-gd-master-19.24040/

Besides it is not clear, if master 19 is different from HE9:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...nts-of-audio-gd-he-9-headphone-pre-amp.20996/

Both definitions, if true, would fulfill the catalogue of estimations.

 

[AMKAM]

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