[JoshK]

I've heard some atmasphere amps a couple of times and thought they sounded nothing like sets.  They had some qualities that were better than SETs and some qualities that were no where near as good as the better SET amps.  Personally, I'd lean toward the SET amps (done right, most aren't). 

[rpf]

Has anyone heard any of Tim de Paravicini's SS designs? Thoughts?

[Gopher]

I've heard some atmasphere amps a couple of times and thought they sounded nothing like sets.  They had some qualities that were better than SETs and some qualities that were no where near as good as the better SET amps.  Personally, I'd lean toward the SET amps (done right, most aren't).

I agree 100% with this statement.  Atma has its own type of presentation, but I've owned a handful of SETs and heard a few others and have also owned an S-30 and the presentations are very different.

The Firstwatt F3 clone I'm listening to at the moment has a VERY similar presentation to my 845 monoblocks, but OP doesn't seem interested in Firstwatt.  I can't think of another solid state amp with a similar presentation...  I've heard other very good and enjoyable SS, but its a different sound.

[Quiet Earth]

OP doesn't seem interested

in the thread anymore?

Maybe he bought a SS amp and lost interest in music.    (Ha! - Just kidding! )

[roscoeiii]

And let me STRONGLY encourage all of you listening to FirstWatt clones to find a way to listen to a Pass-built FirstWatt. A considerable improvement over builds such as Rawson's in my experience. Considerable.

[wilsynet]

I'll add support to both of the recent positions taken up here.

The genuine Nelson Pass First Watt products are better built and just sound plain better than the clones that I've heard.

Also, the First Watt products are the closest I've heard a solid state amplifier sounding like a SET amplifier.

[PaulFolbrecht]

The SS amp with the most tube like sound I have heard is the ModWright KWA 150.  http://www.modwright.com/products/6 I liked it so much that I bought one.

FWIW, several reviewers have made the same assessment. Bob Levi of PFO had this to say:
And in his TAS review, Dick Olsher concluded:
The KWA 150 is definitely worth a listen IMO.

I concur.  I have recently acquired a KWA-100SE and am extremely impressed with it.  I thought it was necessary to spend a lot more money to find a solid-state amp with 100+ watts pulling off that mean trick (for SS) of being extremely smooth, harmonically "complete", and also essentially entirely free of edge or hardness.

For me the existence of this amp opens up completely new possibilities.

[sunnydaze]

Has anyone heard any of Tim de Paravicini's SS designs? Thoughts?

I have and it is fantastic!  At least my Tim de Paravicini designed Alchemist Forseti APD20A "Signature" is.  My system bristles with synergy with it tethered to my Sunny H2W10 speakers.  By far best sound I've had - smooth, open, dynamic, weighty, liquid, halographic, and naturally detailed.  Great solidity, coherence and flow to the sound, resulting in real nice pace and timing.  The clarity in the midrange is spooky at times.  The thing blooms and decays and images/stages/layers like a good tube amp.  Matter of fact, it's better than many tube amps I've heard!  Draws you in and compels you to listen.  No electronic artifacts, grit, grain or glare whatsoever. 

I have never heard SS like this -- NEVER!  Quite satisfying.  And that's coming from a confirmed-dyed-in-the-wool - toobaholic for the past 15 years.  So for you oldsters out there, as Barretta used to say:   "you can take dat to da bank!"     

[PaulFolbrecht]

I suppose if your gear is in a constant state of flux then you might come away with some of those observations. Here's my take :

- solid state is fluffier and fuzzier

- solid state sound is intrinsic to its sloppy speaker control

- heavy doses of measurable perfection make solid state sound like electronic equipment and not like music

- to work properly solid state needs the right speakers

I think Srajan probably does a heck of a lot of listening with different pieces of gear.  Heck, it's his job.

Anyway, comments on your observations:

1) I find that to be very much untrue.  I think most would disagree as well.  Solid-state amps have traditionally had MANY weaknesses, but detail and low noise floor have always been strengths over most valve amps - the former due to the typical presence of output transformers, I think.  (Well, detail & noise floor are closely related.)  (I've owned over 20 SE tube amps, BTW.)

2) Again, "sloppy speaker control" doesn't really make sense as a general description of SS amps: about the only factor in "speaker control" is damping factor, which of course is typically far higher in SS amps.  Also, low-powered SE tube amps usually produce LOTS of harmonic distortion at low frequencies.

3) Some truth to that!

4) I think that's true too: ALL amps require "careful speaker choices" because the amp & speaker is one system and the way an amp's power delivery varies with load must always be considered.

[PaulFolbrecht]

I have heard First Watt and owned Pass...neither remotely made me think that I was listening to a SET amp.

That said, my SET amps continue to collect dust in the corner as I refuse to stop using my Atma-Sphere OTL amps.  For me, the Atma-Sphere amps give me the liquidity, warmth, and texture of the SET amp with the detail, speed, and impact of a SS amp.  Only drawback is the heat and electrical cost.

George

I disagree regarding the First Watt F3: it sounds quite SET-like to me.  Like a good, low-power SET that is.  Not surprising being it's SE and low-feedback, and hence delivers power similar to SE tube amps.

Of course it is quieter and more extended than almost any of them.

I have been loving a (push-pull) OTL amp myself after years of preferring SETs: a Graaf GM20.  Heck of an amp.

[PaulFolbrecht]

The Valvet A3.5 is very similar in the midrange to the Airtight 211 SET but by comparison, a bigger bottom (+) but recessed highs (-) It's got a very fluid midrange but it's a bit syrupy which I like. 2a3s are quick and nimble so I don't think I would compare it to that. WE 300Bs a little bit but definitely more in line with 845s if I were to choose a particular tube.

I wonder if the difference in the highs of the two amps isn't simply due to their power-delivery characteristic: solid-state amps will usually decrease power output with load almost linearly, while tube amps won't.  Many speakers have a rising impedance in the upper-mids and/or treble and such tube amps will always sound "brighter" on them.

[newzooreview]

I ran across a solid state amp last week that very much impressed me with it's SET-like sound: the Heed Obelisk Si (I had never heard of them either).

For context, I have had Wyred4Sound (Class D) monoblocks for a while and picked up a Jolida 302 (ultralinear EL34 tube amp) for my bedroom. I hooked it up to the main system and immediately noticed an improved tone and fluidity. It couldn't match the resolution, bass control, and soundstage of the Wyred4Sound, but I knew I needed to look into more capable tube amps.

I ended up finding a dealer in the area who carries Decware amps, and I went out there to audition the Torii. It is a remarkable amp, and I would have bought one if I had been enamored with the single-driver loudspeakers he had available to audition it with. I also listened to the Decware Zen (a pure SET as opposed to the psuedo-SET of the Torii). It was also excellent, and I had a very good baseline for SET sound about two hours into the listening session.

Towards the end, I asked if I could check out the little solid state amp he had paired with his only set of two-way speakers (LSA Statement monitors). He said the speakers were the only speakers with crossovers that he cared for and the amp was the only solid state that he had run across that he would be satisfied with in place of his tube amps.

The sound drew me in, and I spent an unplanned third hour with the Heed. It turns out that the entire basis of the Heed design is to use solid state components but in a valve-amp configuration (I'm paraphrasing). Their website says "…35 watts don’t exactly equal 35 watts, since the Obelisk’s non-DC-coupled design behaves rather more akin to valve amplifiers (roughly speaking, Richard Hay’s approach was sort of a “valve amp built with transistors”) of similar rating. With this kind of power on board, better valve amps are capable of astonishing dynamic authority, and we’re more than satisfied that the Obelisk Si adheres to this paradigm and then some."

I hope that helps. Unfortunately, Heed doesn't really to seem to have many U.S. dealers, so listening to one isn't not so simple.

[JLM]

Didn't know Decware was sold via dealerships. 

Where did you hear this amp?

[newzooreview]

I heard the Decware amps at EarHead Audio in Winchester, VA. http://www.ear-head.com/
They are an authorized dealer and had the Zen Select, Torii, and Torii Mini (didn't hear that one). Both Zen amps were excellent, and beautifully built. I would have bought the Torii, but I wasn't enamored with the single driver speakers they had (fullness in the bass was lacking--and I'm not a serious basshead), and the two-way speaker they had did not quite mate well with the Torii. I would expect that the Torii would be amazing with many speakers. It was providing a wonderful soundstage, with natural fluid detail that I had never heard before in my recordings.

[rpf]

I have and it is fantastic!  At least my Tim de Paravicini designed Alchemist Forseti APD20A "Signature" is.  My system bristles with synergy with it tethered to my Sunny H2W10 speakers.  By far best sound I've had - smooth, open, dynamic, weighty, liquid, halographic, and naturally detailed.  Great solidity, coherence and flow to the sound, resulting in real nice pace and timing.  The clarity in the midrange is spooky at times.  The thing blooms and decays and images/stages/layers like a good tube amp.  Matter of fact, it's better than many tube amps I've heard!  Draws you in and compels you to listen.  No electronic artifacts, grit, grain or glare whatsoever. 

I have never heard SS like this -- NEVER!  Quite satisfying.  And that's coming from a confirmed-dyed-in-the-wool - toobaholic for the past 15 years.  So for you oldsters out there, as Barretta used to say:   "you can take dat to da bank!"     

I meant anyone else and any other de Paravicini amp, John.   

[sunnydaze]

I meant anyone else and any other de Paravicini amp, John.   

Ha!   Just sharing my experience with the board.     

[muralman1]

Please read the 6moons review of the H20 Signature and Fire preamp, in this SS 'session. SET was mentioned several times. Only this combo can tap it's perfection on the most piggish of speakers.

Here is a small portion that does just like that:

"The Fire also played an unusual trump card more often associated with low-wattage tube amplification. It made low-level information more apparent, trevealing complex leading and trailing edges on instruments as well as enhancing dimensional solidity and soundstage boundaries."

[Trover]

I'll agree with the people who feel there is nothing that sounds like tubes but tubes. Not single ended class A solid state, not Rega integrateds, Not Sugden class A push pull integrated. That is the extent of my personal use and ownership experience, in one case a friend and I were able to directly compare my Pass Aleph Solid state SE class A to my CJ EL34 based tube amp- in a nutshell, the midrange sweetness and "liquidity" you seek was abundant and instantly noticeable on the tube amp, also noted were a looser and less distinct bass quality and some treble distortion that disappeared when we switched to the Pass class A amp, the closest you'll get to tubes is class A solid state IMO. Class A has a much cleaner treble and a better bass response and a midrange that is not as good as tubes but still very good. In short the tubes won for midrange meat and liquidity, the solid state amp won in the area of bass, treble and detail. In the end I could'nt deal with the heat, energy consumption, cost and hassle of either design-(wound up with a Rega integrated lol- not the one referred to in this thread but the next one up the line called "Elicit", and no it does not sound like tubes but I like the amp alot.