A great article on Class D/switching amps

Teajay, I had a chance to audition Jeff Rowland Model 501/Concerto pre combo in my systems and did not like it at all. Despite nice, powerfull bottom end everything else in sound presentation was wrong IMHO. As J.Valin correctly ponit out treble info is very limited and you got "cut-off" feeling most of the time. Midrange was detailed, but somehow mechanical in presentation. Two friends of mine visited me during several days(actually 25days!) auditioning period and both of them did not like Rowland sound. One of them owns same amps(Pass XA100) as you do. I also had a chance to audition Bel Canto REF1000s and did not like them as well.
BTW, it is pretty interesting that both J.Valin and R.Harley did not like D-class amp too much, but both of them are using pretty good tube and solid state amps as their reference's.
IMHO D(or T) class amps have a very long way to go before we will have something of truly reference calibar here. That strange high frequency behaviour is still a problem of most D class amps and this problem is not pretty simple to solve(look at the way D class amps work).
Of course, it is only my humble opinion...

There seems to be two parties, in which the audiophiles could be divided: audiophiles in one party dislike class D amplification because of the artificial, cold and non-organic sound, while the audiophiles in the other party like the class D amps for having a clean, dynamic and true to life sound. Why does this outspoken dichotomy exist? Why do some audiophiles prefer the sound of class D amplification in stead of multi thousand $$ conventional amplification? I read a story about this very rich audiophile who replaced his one million $$ worth of WAVAC amplification with class D amplification and it was not because he needed the money. It is quite puzzling to me.

Chris

Dazz I think you're being too simplistic about this. I like some class D amps, don't own one, but wouldn't place myself in either one of your divisions.

However, the topic seems to rise blood pressure in many audiophiles.

This topic raises blood pressure. Isn't it curious? I find the entire idea that there are two classes of amps with all within a class sounding alike unbelievable. Even among class D amps I hear great differences, and among class A/B amps, I have had probably 20 different one and heard great differences.

But what is most interesting is that we argue in print about what we hear. Who cares what others think? I know that I am anxious to hear the Red Dragons and have no interest in the Rolands or Nuforce amps.