Zing said:
If someone wants to look into Class A SET tube amps, what makes and models are available? The only one that fits this criteria and that immediately comes to mind is the Cary 805.
I also thought of Jolida but they seem to specify "hybrid" for their amps which, I'm assuming, is some sort of cross between vacuum tube and solid state. And then of course there is McIntosh but they don't specify whether its output is Class A.
McIntosh is most definitely
NOT class A, or anything close; they are near class B, which means that the output tubes are run near cut-off, and the distortion produced is "made up" for with high amounts of negative feedback, both global and local. They are the anti Christ of tube designs.
While I don't have any specific model numbers to recommend, I would say that generally you want to stay away from hybrid amps, or amps which use "improvements" to the basic, classic design of a class A SET amplifier, which is in its self very simple and rather crude with few parts, but that's why they sound so good. This also goes for push-pull class A amplifiers (those over about 7 watts), because by the nature of the push pull output stage, even order harmonic distortion is largely cancelled, leaving only the odd harmonics.
The only thing solid state I would tolerate in a class A SET amplifier is the DC power rectifier(s).
If you're going to the trouble of buying a class A SET amplifier, you might as well get the real deal.