Dipping My Toe Into Class A

I have to run it at about 65% of its current power for my speakers here but WOW. How is this unit only $250 shipped?

Class A is ******* awesome! Its so clean. Its like pulling wool away. The highs are so tight, controlled, and details. Feels like I added another tweeter. The lows are so dynamic.

I did test it to full volume of the DAC/preamp with my o scope and it did not clip with a sine wave @1000hz all the way to full volume. Not sure if the Fosi limits it so it doesn't clip.

This Fosi DAC/preamp is also new so that might be part of it. All I know is this sounds way better than the WIIM amp it has replaced. This is incredible. Its like I built a new set of speakers.

Is more power better for the overhead or does it not matter that much? I've head the peaks in music and require another 15-20 watts above the baseline music. Thoughts?
 

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Don't waste your time. Like Bigun said, God JLH69, or better buy a used sudgen A21.
You will have to spend much more to get better.
In tube amp, if you want that big leap, you need the quality IRON, everywhere, so build full Lundhal or full Toriodal.
And don't be afraid of regulators, film caps.

Some amps will give you a big improvement like some modern class D (very expensive) , I personally don't like any, but many people like them,

Don't limit yourself by dogma : caps are bad in signal (no, direct feedback and proper filters make them sound ok), certain resistors (all parts have a color and a little feedback can remove it much), Class A (limits the available power for class B making poorer transition and poor definition/transient). No feedback, (feedback helps many aspects without hurting sound), it has 'audionote' gold caps it will sound better and takman resistors (these are very small aspects of sound). High power low THD figures (probably is not important at all)

On the other hand some factors to consider in obtaining higher quality: Single ended , single ended power supplies (no +/_) , Single components in the signals path (in opposition to mirror/balanced, LTP, diamond, topologies) , short feedback loops properly designed, Low feedback. Quality of design and execution, one little flaw can ruin the whole amplifier, just one bad part or one bad joint, one flaw on the circuit or bias.
 
My system runs at normal listening level below 1 watt. Yes, most of the time its few hundred milliwatts.
If yours require 150 watts you must be running disco, and quality of the amp does not matter much
This is all dependent on the sensitivity of your speakers. I design my own speakers. Normally I just pad down my mids and tweeters to match the woofers accuracy. The more dynamic woofers are lower sensitivity.

Option is pad it down and end up with low sensitivity, use crappier woofers with lesser dynamics, or make ginormous tower systems that the wife will constantly complain about. I choose the first option. This then, requires significant power.
 
When you say power you mean amperes
Those two are directly related but yes, I imagine it is dependent on the capacitor reserve power.

This class A has a lot of capacitor for each bank. It does not seem to struggle at lower volumes. I don't exactly want to run it to clipping.

I'll probably go AB next to see the difference.

I think I'm in the minority since I generally listen at lower volumes. Seems like a lot of people like to listen around 90-110db which I consider to be too loud unless I'm just showing a friend the capability of a system.