Zero guns involved, just dissenting opinion which is apparently blasphemy here..Glad to see you are so easily taken by a reviewers comments, as long as you understand how they acquire the gear and how the industry works. I've heard both as well and my share of Class A. My point is sound, these may be great amps, they are NOT Class A amps. And again, they DO NOT sound like them either, I've heard them. Posting excerpts from favorable reviews putting down a technology that these are posing to be, is shilling when it benefits the manufacturer btw.
People need to make informed decisions, these amps aren't rethinking anything that hasn't already been done. It's just biasing, and therefore not Class A, it's Class AB. Enjoy your amps, or preamps whatever you bought. I am just here to shed light on the truth.
Nothing wrong with dissenting opinions. No blasphemy in that. The issue here is casting opinons as facts. I came across these same narratives before regarding the Rei monos, but in a different WBF thread, so I will repost my reply here.
One of our local stereo club members had the "Stern/Heisenberg combo" that he paired with his Zellaton Stage speakers. The Zellatons are an excellent speaker - btw. The Audionet combo, not so much - to our groups ears. We found them falling short of their touted attributes. The member in question bought the CH M10 & L10 combo to replace his Audionet electronics, which has render a significant improvement in performance across the audio and enjoyment spectrums. By comparison the Audionoet gear sounds flat, artificially precise (e.g. brittle) and un-engaging.
My point is, there is a lot of hype-over-reality when it comes to some manufacturer's claims and the cult-like take up by their product buyers. One thing this hobby has taught us - there's no straight line correlation between price and perfection. So called "strata" should be solely performance based. Cost of membership considerations should be secondary at best.
I prefer real-world and real-system feedback from informed and passionate owners over the magazine-chaser and purveyor crowds. That's why I like WBF member feedback - for the most part. On occasion, the curmudgeonly antagonists weigh-in making bold and unfounded assertions under the guise of feigned expertise. That element has overtaken forums on most of the other mainstream audio-chat sites causing the more thoughtful, respectful and sincerely informed contributors to seek the comfort and civility of WBF.
As a retired general counsel of a multi-billion dollar corporation, I admired and recognized Treitz3's prudent and strategic refereeing to distance WBF from any guilt-by-association defamation exposure. Well done!
That brings me to the statement; "your Amps are NOT Class A amps..." in the context of WestminsterLab's Rei. As with Class B, AB, C, D and E amplifiers, there are many ways to skin the Class A cat (my apologizes to cat owners). The first step in the evolution of Class A amplification was replacing SET tubes with output stage transistors biased for Class-A operation. The latest evolutionary step developed by, Angus Leung, is the development of the "iBIAS" circuit, which "permits real-time bias adjustment and optimization depending on the amplifier’s load and input signal level." In both a conventional biased circuit and Leung's redesign, 100% of the input signal is used and a single output device/circuit manages both sides of the waveform. So, in my books it qualifies as Class A.
True, Leung's latest amplifier doesn't compete in the same weight class as a 1956 Buick. Apparently (and I say apparently, because I don't own the Rei), it doesn't double as a breakfast skillet on a gas stove either. However, those attributes don't define whether or not WestminsterLab's Rei is a Class A amplifier. According to a couple of voices in this post, a really good Class A amplifier should have the ability to "burn a GD hole in your floor" and "weigh a ton" (figuratively). One of our other audio club members has a few stereo systems, including one with a Gryphon Essence stereo amp driving Joesph Graphene Audio Pearls. It delivers 55W/side into an 8 ohm load in pure Class A.
Now, here's the surprise for me (beyond its meat-on-the-tomahawk delivery), that Gryphon Class A runs warm to the touch on the top of the case. So, at the cost of rattling the cages of the doubting curmudgeons, it sounds wonderful even though the Essence weighs 57kg vs. 32kg for both Rei monos.
I'm grateful for innovation in audio and I admire inventors and designers who question and challenge conventional parameters. Otherwise, I would be listening to my old JBL speakers driven by a Lloyds 8-track stereo. Thank you as well to my WBF colleagues who are willing to venture into uncharted territory and embrace and share your new experiences. Kudos my friends!
