Gulp. I am putting my system up for sale, the unimaginable.
This is the Tube Research Labs 225, solid state, unbalanced, power amp. It is essentially the TRL Samson Mono blocks in one chassis and is a type of sliding Class A design. So it offers the imaging, smoothness - Ie: no crossover distortion, tonality, of a Pure Class A design without the amp running full tilt continually. So the amp runs cool.
Sonically it is very musical, very dynamic, powerful, with great imaging, both in sound staging and clarity of individual instruments. According to many people who have gone through tons of expensive gear, they feel that the TRL gear is the most musical and truly world class. I would have to agree it is tremendous gear. Paul was not interested in creating a big company so it remained a very small, niche, product line. His design philosophy was built around very powerful, robust, power supplies.
TRL is more famous for their tube amplifier line of 80, 200, 400, 800 watt, monster tube amps. The 800s were over 100 grand and came in 4 very large chassis. The solid state and tubed power amps sounded the same. I asked Paul how the 225 amp compared to the tube amps. Here is his reply.
“If I'm listening to a 15 or 30 ips master of Reiner Sound or Pink Floyd and the speakers are right, and the cables are good, and the deck is sounding right, the tubes are more open a little, and breathe free-er up to the power limit. The 225/Samson has a lot of power and doesn't clip or behave badly.”
When the Ncore craze was happening I told Paul about this. He knew about them and was getting in the largest Ncore modules to see if he could make a 225/Samson replacement as those amps took a lot of time to build. Ultimately he felt the Ncores make a good budget amp but he did not like the sound and only built one or a few amps using the Ncores.
You will notice that you don’t see TRL for sale on the used market. First, there is a smaller number out there than main brands, but more importantly, people who have them know after decades of chasing audio that they have found something very special, so they are holding them. I know if I sell this amp the Dude preamp that it will be very hard to replace them down the road. So I don’t take this lightly.
Here is your opportunity to take advantage of my delusional decision making process.
Price. $3500.00 US
Dude Preamp $4500.00 US
GR-Research Super Vs listed shortly.
