Class D amps that are superior to all or most?

While this is certainly true, it has nothing to do with a properly functioning amplifier. Usually it has more to do with making sure that the speakers used with the amp are such that when the dynamic range of the music is expressed, you hear everything without distortion, even if its at lifelike levels.

As an example, in 1959 RCA released the Soria series recordings. Dorle Soria came from Angel to work with RCA and produced upscale recordings and packaging. One such recording is the Verdi Requiem, which is recorded without any compression. The second cut on side one has dynamic range that can bring many systems to their respective knees. But if you have enough power and you have easy to drive speakers its no problem!

Great example on the Soria series,....absolutely spot-on. As to the rest of the reply, you cannot have one without the other, i.e. a speaker that will do it when the amp cannot accomplish the same goal and vice versa leaves you with the system not being able to do it so with all respect, it does have to do with the amplifier’s capabilities.

The i.V Ultra series of amps from Legacy Audio are not stock IcePower modules in a box. That discussion needs to be discarded. I have not shared everything I know about the design. I am not interested in sharing it all, as well.

Further, I presume that Legacy’s use of one channel with a dedicated power supply per channel could outperform all the mods of the EVS amp. Or, vice versa. 

Obviously, no one - including EVS, Legacy, or myself - knows short of an actual comparison.

As to the rest of the reply, you cannot have one without the other, i.e. a speaker that will do it when the amp cannot accomplish the same goal and vice versa leaves you with the system not being able to do it so with all respect, it does have to do with the amplifier’s capabilities.

If the amplifier is unable to follow the waveform presented to it (which is the source of all dynamic contrast) then it will distort.

Perhaps a bit counterintuitively, if a particular amp is **more** dynamic than most others (for example SETs) its also because of distortion. In the case of SETs up to about 20% of full power their distortion is pretty benign. But above that point, the higher ordered harmonics become more pronounced. Since the ear uses the higher ordered  harmonics to sense sound pressure and because transients is where most of the power is, when the higher orders show up on the transients, the ear interprets that as 'louder on the leading edges' IOW more 'dynamic'.

Its a simple fact that when audiophiles talk about dynamics, about 90% of the time they are really talking about distortion, and you can safely replaced the word 'dynamics' in that conversation with 'distortion' without changing the meaning of the conversation.


Put another way, amps that sound more 'dynamic' are very likely to do so out of distortion and nothing else. The dynamic character of the music should come from the source, not the amp, that is if the amp is accurately reproducing the signal!

Actually, I should add to my last comment. A simple comparison is not terribly informative. A comparison between amps in use with 4-6 speaker systems, and from 12-18 discrete systems yields an entirely different assessment (perhaps consistent with first impression, perhaps not) than simply use in one system with one pair of speakers. 

Short of such a thorough familiarization with an amp, the judgment of which is better is quite limited. That is why in my review I built more than a dozen discrete rigs with several pairs of speakers, my methodology. I pay no attention to what many think is SO important, break in. I build systems - and get a far better, global understanding of the performance of any component.  :) 

If the amplifier is unable to follow the waveform presented to it (which is the source of all dynamic contrast) then it will distort.

Perhaps a bit counterintuitively, if a particular amp is **more** dynamic than most others (for example SETs) its also because of distortion. In the case of SETs up to about 20% of full power their distortion is pretty benign. But above that point, the higher ordered harmonics become more pronounced. Since the ear uses the higher ordered harmonics to sense sound pressure and because transients is where most of the power is, when the higher orders show up on the transients, the ear interprets that as 'louder on the leading edges' IOW more 'dynamic'.

Its a simple fact that when audiophiles talk about dynamics, about 90% of the time they are really talking about distortion, and you can safely replaced the word 'dynamics' in that conversation with 'distortion' without changing the meaning of the conversation.

Put another way, amps that sound more 'dynamic' are very likely to do so out of distortion and nothing else. The dynamic character of the music should come from the source, not the amp, that is if the amp is accurately reproducing the signal!

All so true....great post!  I would only add that great amps that sound more dynamic can also do it due to extremely low distortion and better execution of instantaneous power delivery.