Oh how I wish Class D amps ...


I sure wish manufacturers and designers would move forward as quickly as is possible on improving the current status of Class D amps ... I have heard them all, some in my own system, and they have SO mcu promise !!! Unfortunately they just do not have it down yet. They still sound dry, unmusical, and strange in the treble ... kind of chalky and rolled off, and definitely lacking air.
I long for the day I can get rid of my hundred pound Class AB monster amp, for a nice small cool running amp that sounds just as good. I am worried though that designers and manufacturers have accepted the " It sounds good enough" opinion, and that the B&O Ice power may be a long time before it is "fixed"... sigh.
Just my rant ...
timtim
I've owned several variants of TA2024 including Trends 10.1, a few TA2020 amps from Muse, Topping, etc, and currently use a LM1875 from Brian Bell (chipamp_dot_com.)

This last one is a pure gainclone, minimalistic, very few parts. The best 20wpc I've ever heard from solid state, and better in most ways than many single-ended triode and pentode 6BQ5 amps. I've owned Almarro, Decware copies, rebuilt vintage SEs by Magnavox, Motorola, Zenith, some killer DIY 6bq5 SE using a chip voltage regulator and tube rectifier, and lots more. I've also owned many rebuilt vintage tube amps from EICO, Fisher, Scott, Pilot (SA232 is AMAZING) Allied (6BM8), Conn Organ (6L6), Harman Kardon, etc. I've owned solid-state by Belles, Van Alstine, Nelson Pass, Dynaco and much more. Pair a well-designed class-d with good speakers from Tang Band, Fostex, Mission, etc and they are near perfect, IMO. Great amps have been around since the 1940s. I think even a basic run-of-the-mill Class D will out-perform any Mosfet amp at any price. More accurate midrange, better bass, nicer higs, less audible distortion, lower noise floor, better reliability.

We are in the second "golden age" of audio. If your class-d doesn't sound like tubes, add a tube buffer between your passive attenuator and amp. For me, though, musical truth and emotional experience is more important than nostalgia.
" Mike do you think Ralph's MA2 or MA3 could drive those speakers?"

Hello Rlff: I think this question is best to be addressed to Ralph...
Michael_moskowich, Tim Aucremann of The Audio Beat http://www.theaudiobeat.com uses a set of MA-1s (with a set of ZEROs) with Sashas. I myself heard the Sashas on MA-1s at Paul Bolin's home. It didn't seem like the speaker was hard to drive at all! So yes, obviously our bigger amps can drive the speaker too. In fact it seems to me that with a set of M-60s and a set of ZEROs you would have plenty of power with Sashas in most rooms.

Here's an article Tim wrote about the MA-1s, scroll down and you will see the Sashas: http://www.theaudiobeat.com/blog/atma_sphere_ma1_mk31_upgrade.htm

Class D, as you can imagine, has made big inroads in the pro-audio and music world. For example Orange now has a class D bass amp that makes 500 watts. Its small and light! It can't keep up with an all-tube Peavey 400-watt bass head though. The Peavey has more punch and bottom end. Mind you we are comparing apples to oranges in a fashion, because its likely that music amps are not built to the same standards as high end stuff. But I find it interesting (and perhaps no coincidence) that the relationship I have observed between class D and tubes in general seems similar to what I have seen in the music field as well.
Atmasphere, least of all I want to argue with you. However, I did not expressed any doubt that your "bigger" amplifiers (or similar OTL amps) can drive Sasha too. Surely, they will show magical midrange there as well.

I love to audition operas e.g. Saturday's "live" transmissions from Metropoliten Opera in NY, big symphonic music and I do stand behind my statement that any OTL I know of: "cannot drive my Sasha by Wilson and provide the same dynamic range as Spectron does ". PERIOD !!! I believe Spectron has 7kW peak power and it shows!

Mike