Class D Amplification Announcement

I recently upgraded my Class D amp in my main system from older Bel Canto ref1000m IcePower based (already quite excellent) to a more recent Hypex-based design. Being an engineer myself always with an eye on new legit technical innovations that can move things forward, I was considering the various GaN options as well, including AGD amps I heard in another A’goner’s system, but did not find exactly what I was looking for yet with GaN (based on features more so than sound alone), so tried the Hypex-based product  and it is not leaving anytime soon. Meanwhile, will wait to see what else new comes out in next few years, GaN and otherwise, and see what happens then.   Several  Purifi-based products were also given strong consideration.

The Aavik integrated amp mentioned had my interest...very nice..until I saw the price. Not happening for me anytime soon. Top notch sound, at least to meet my requirements, need not cost that much these days thanks to widespread related advances in technology. Were I to take a plunge like that, I would expect support beyond the norm at a minimum to help insure the investment.

An unbiased shootout with the competition to maybe help justify the cost would be interesting. But it looks like a boutique type product at least for American consumers and that alone will draw some interest. Especially when everything else prior is purposefully labeled a "disappointment" by the OP.

Fantastic advice from Atmasphere re making one’s recordings “to know what’s right and what isn’t”.  I would include and stress increased attendance to live performances.  In that advice is the simple reality that there IS a “right”…..certainly within a narrower spectrum of variability (for various reasons) than that which I hear among many different audio systems, all claimed to be right (“accurate”).

soix - the amp it's replacing is Music Reference RM10 MkII which I've enjoyed for 11 years now, one of my favorites of a long line of high quality tube and SS amps.

The sound of a high rez two channel system sounds nothing like live music

Three possibilities:

-The ‘high rez’ system is not assembled well; it is not well balanced.

-Recordings being played are not very good.

-The listener is not familiar with the sound of live music.

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The idea that there can be a high rez system (def: revealing of the recording) that is not well-balanced is, if anything, a contradiction in terms. The qualifier ‘well balanced’ is so vague as to be essentially useless.

There is no universal definition as to what constitutes a good recording, other than that it sounds good. The idea that a good recording is supposed to simulate a live performance is simply false for the vast majority of recordings.

Whether or not the listener is familiar with the sound of live music (I am) is simply not relevant- neither the recordings nor the equipment is designed to simulate a live performance. Which is as it should be. How much of the music that is consumed these days is comprised of acoustic instruments on a stage, recorded ‘live’? Virtually zero.