Damn!! If I didn't already have a Korneff 45 amp I would absolutely buy those.

Question - what does the monoblock implementation allow you to achieve that the single stereo chassis does not?

Enjoy the First Watt. :music: Tubes can drive you crazy...it happened to me. :tears:

I own multiple SS amps, including a Class D. I like them a lot. With my speakers they are more dynamic with deeper, more well-defined bass than my Inspire amps. When listening to classical music I almost always go with a SS amp.

More "dynamic" is what I liked too about my former SS amps and others I demo'd with friends. Combined with a good tube preamp the sound was interesting and more energetic, but not as enjoyable for longer listening periods. And, rarely as engaging and musical as my higher powered tube amps. However, I would still like to try a really good (recommended keeper?) higher power hybrid tube/SS power amplifier in combination with my tube preamp and larger speakers.

The First Watt series is probably as close as you can get to tubish sound with SS. It is all Class A and relatively low power at 25wpc. It has the midrange quality but greater extension both up and down along with the added dynamics (at least with fairly sensitive speakers - mine are spec'd 95db).

It very well may be that some of Dennis' other designs, PSE for example, would do the same, but I haven't ventured beyond my KT150 to really know.

I love the First Watt amps - I've built and owned a bunch of them. There's 3 that really stand out to me - the Burning Amp 3 (or BA3 as it's abbreviated), the Aleph and the J2. I've not heard the SIT amps, although they are supposed to be the very best of the line.

The BA3 is what I settled on as my long term amp - it does a really good job sounding beautiful while still having an iron grip on the speaker drivers.

I've not heard the BA3, SIT, or any of the Alephs. The SIT is intriguing. May be way off, but I think of the J2 (and similar) vs. the SIT like Pentode vs. Triode.

I did build the ACA monoblocs kit and modified it by mounting within a toroidal power supply chassis (24v vs the stock 18v). They were quite nice, only 8 watts, and what got me to go for the J2.

https://i.imgur.com/IGLpj85.jpg?1

If I were to venture back towards tubes, it might be with a kit of some sort.

Don't want to venture far off into SS land though. That would be off topic for this thread I think. :angel:

Well you could do what I do - keep the Inspire amps and the First Watt amps and just switch back and forth based on your mood :thumbsup:

+1 At least wait until you are sure you don't want tubes any more. I don't think there are many kit amps that will surpass the Inspire at a similar price point.

This is what I do too. I have speaker cables connected to each amp and just make the switch at the back of my speakers, just takes a few seconds. My preamp has two outputs, so I also have it connected to both amps at all times. So just the one quick cable switch.