"D" amps, general discussion who's 1 and why?

I listened plenty long to both Bel Canto and Red Dragon,and guess what at the end it was ugly and unmusical,and frankly made my skin crawl,so dont give me the part about not listening.

Coffey, I empathize with your experience with Red Dragon Leviathan. . . I suspect this device may not be quite representative of the state of the class D art. Conversely, on the subject of Bel Canto. . . it's a brand, not a device. Unless you have auditioned at some length the Mk.2 versions of the Ref 500 or Ref 1000, you may have heard obsolete models that sound to all accounts not quite as refined as the new ones.

Which Bel Canto Coffeey? Even in an otherwise limiting system at this year's RMAF I could hear a lot of promise. Were you comparing to your Counterpoint? Of course Bel Canto isn't near the top of the ICEPower heap, but it shouldn't make your skin crawl.

If your skin crawled with the latest Bel Canto, then I expect that there was something wrong with the system.

What aspects made your skin crawl? That's a pretty broad dismissal, said with a certain degree of authority that would imply that you know what you're talking about, so why not share some details? Maybe, as little as listing the other system components and where the audition took place. Were there any comparisons made? Were the components in balanced mode?

I haven't heard the Red Dragon, but I'd worry about the wooden chassis and sheet metal chassis not delivering the isolation from EMI and RFI that ICEPower needs. Those are pretty expensive units in a very basic looking chassis.

Dave

I have been a tube guy for a couple of decades but after demoing and then moving to Spectron amps - from stereo to mono block there can never be any doubt I made an improvement in my enjoyment of my rig. Now, there are lots of good SS, Tube and class D amps and similarly lots of overpriced but well hyped but not great gear. For me the bottom line was that the Spectron class D amps removed a veil that my previous tube amps had and also class D amps seem to have the speed and cadence to ensure that all of the signal reaches the speakers at the right time. Hard to define but easier to hear.

There are a bunch of great amps that I would be delighted to have in my system (assuming appropriate synergies) and I could name a short list of SS, Tube and Class D. My point is that circuit design, good board topography, effective procurement and manufacturing can deliver a great product, or not, so the best class D will sound superb and the poorly designed class D will sound like crap and the same goes for tubes, SS etc. etc.

Bel Canto, Rowland, Spectron are all great products.

My rant ends with the principle that system synergy ends up defining the quality of final sound - and most likely a product of electro-mechanical parameters.

"best class D will sound superb and the poorly designed class D will sound like crap and the same goes for tubes, SS etc. etc."

Thank you Radical. . . couldn't have said it more eloquently myself (grins!)