Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site
In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: Two-stages, hybrid, small, powerful class “A”?
Post Subject: Two brands come to mind, while disappeared... and a currently active one.Posted by Antonio J. on: 5/2/2006
One was the Llano Design Group's Trinity, which had 300wpc. The first stage was tube and was in a separated enclosure providing voltage amplification, while the second stage used transistors for current amplification. I guess it was pure class A or at least AB with high bias providing most of its power in class A.
The other were the Counterpoint models. In the 80's they introduced several models SA-8, SA-12, SA-100, etc uinsg MOSFET output and later the Natural Progression series which used bipolar transistors (IGBT) output. You can check their line out here: http://www.altavistaaudio.com/Product_Guide.html
A friend of mine has one SA-100 (modified and upgraded to get the feedback loop off) and it's not specially interesting, powerful but smooth compared to other pure SS amps, that's all.
rgrds,
A.
PS: Looking at the Counterpoint's site, I've found that its designer Michael Elliott started a new brand named Aria. They are producing amplifiers following the same design principles, a tube stage for voltage amplification and transistor based output stage. There are two models, one rated at 100wpc (stereo) and other at 350 wpc (monoblocks). Quite pricey, can be seen here: http://www.ariaaudio.com/WTStereoMono.html I wouldn't be using that "packaging" it looks awful :-)Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site