Class D is just Dandy!

I took the Class D plunge just a month ago for my home-office system as alternative to the Triode TRV-A300SE Integrated. I purchased the "Waring" Integrated from FLEAWATT (25 wpc into 4), the owner, Derek makes them himself. This little guy (the amp) uses a TPA3116D2 chip and it's built w/ Dueland cotton/copper wire. My Dell computer (JRIVER server) is connected via USB to a Chord Electronics QX (British version) DAC, then downstream of the integrated, Antero bookshelf speakers w/ a 92 dB sensitivity. Does the music lack, euphonics? I'm not hearing  it .... and the sound is impressively detailed and transparent, quite musical while bass extension is excellent and tight. I like it so much, I've got him making me another model~!

Hifidream :

Interesting, very similar to the Yamaha EEEngine I wrote about a little while ago, and therefore similar to the Carver amps too.

Best,

E

I wish we weren’t ragging on Pass.... but yeah, my own experience (but in 2 different systems) was that ICEPower ASP was their equal.

Which also, by extension and if I have any integrity, means the Parasound Halo amps I've heard are also very very close.

Best,

E

@ whitestix

https://forum.audiogon.com/posts/1415192

Cheers George

I've come to a Class D amp not through any intentional act, but purely though preference for the sound quality. I had tube gear for years, then moved to Naim for about 10 years. I was going to upgrade along the Naim chain until I heard Devialet. I bought a D120 about two years ago, then upgraded to a D220 Pro in December. I've never had better sound in life. Musical and accurate and emotional. 

There aren't that many absolutes in the audio world. You can do SS or Tubes well or badly, and there are a lot of approaches to class D amps as well. But I would not go back to Naim or McIntosh for anything. And nobody who hears my system comments that it sounds metallic or artificial. Source quality matters, cables matter, power quality matters, and of course, we all have our own preferences in musical reproduction, But those who dismiss class D out of hand probably haven't heard a good system. Or else they just like the sound of tubes and their particular sonic signature.