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With what speakers? dave
Windchaser’s comment is what I’m afraid I’m going to find when trying to settle on a SS amp. I have been seduced by the Single Ended sound! The soundstage and seductive midrange is what I have not been able to get even with much more expensive push pull tube designs.
The Cherry Maraschino STM is $1200; the more powerful STM King is $1700. And I'm quite certain if the OP being an SET devotee went in this direction, he'd be gobsmacked that anything so unpretentious could not only meet, but exceed his very high expectations.
Why would anyone want a SS amp that sounds like tubes. I’d rather have a SS amp that sounds better than tubes. I’ve owned at least half a dozen different SET amps, and I know why people like them. But SET amps are not suitable for the vast majority of speakers. In fact SET suitable speakers are few and far between and most people wouldn’t buy these speakers if they didn’t have too. Furthermore SET amps come in all kinds of different flavours, meaning they all sound different. And based on my experience none of these flavours are as neutral, incisive and musically satisfying as my Class D mono amps which don’t require “special” easy to drive speakers. It’s been more than two years since I moved on from tube amplification and I don’t miss the flavour of any particular tube at all.