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Thinking of replacing my Bat spaceheater with class D, real world thoughts please

Ok so I know there are already lots of threads on class D both negative and positive

As I have had a very positive result with replacing the ss amps in my ht rig with a single tiny Nuforce class D amp I was tempted to look into the same for my stereo rig.

This is a little more difficult as my present amp is a BAT VK600SE, 120LB of muscle and heat.

Now I am in love with my present sound but still am very curious if class D could do anything for me as it certainly did in the ht rig although those ss amps were not in the BAT league to start with.

So I would like to hear from people who have actually gone this route, replaced their expensive, heavy, power consuming amps with tiny little cold running boxes and what their results were.

Was it uplifting, about the same or make you wish you had never heard of class D!

128x128uberwaltz
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
I entirely agree that it will all depend on how it sounds in my system and am prepared to do a number of a/b comparisons of a lengthy nature.

However my main focus was to see how many had actually gone this route and if they regretted it and just some general views on the many class d amps out there.

Ones I had considered so far include Bel Canto, Jeff Rowland, NuForce, D-Sonic to name a few.
All claim to make prodigous power from a small box up to 1500 watts in some cases, although we all know numbers on their own do not mean a great deal.
mitch2
4,076 posts
 
I don't see Ncore on your list but Rowland uses NC1200 amplifier modules in its upper end amps and BelCanto also uses Ncore - custom modules in the Black, and Ncore NC500 modules in the REF 600M, which has received all the rave reviews.  Acoustic Imagery offers a bare-bones pair of NC500 monoblocks for $2K - for the pair.
Between Rowland, Bel Canto and D-Sonic, you certainly have the price range covered.
vegasears
1,173 posts
 
I wish you all the luck iberwaltz.  I tried to get rid of my VTL space heaters a few years back. I used Classe and Bryston for a few months each and always went back to those room heating tubes. I gave up and later upgraded in the VTL line.  
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Ones I had considered so far include Bel Canto, Jeff Rowland, NuForce, D-Sonic
Out of that lot the BC600mono’s were the ones that has the best Class-D sound I’ve heard, but it needed to be driving a very flat benign 4ohm, from mids to highs to get that sound, otherwise it sounded fair, this was achieved with a very expensive Raven tweeter’ed 2 way. "Could" also work with Maggies.

Cheers George
asvjerry's avatar
asvjerry
4,739 posts
 
It always amuses me that in the whole 'to D or not to D' discussion that the simplest answer to 'will I like it (the sound) or not' that it never occurs to anyone to simply 'cheap out' with a simple test....

Buy an inexpensive unit.  Flog the daylights out of it, like I did.  Find out for yourself if it's worth going further with it.

For sure, an inexpensive unit won't be as 'nuanced' as a more expensive one, but at least one would have the opportunity to stick your toe into the water before you cannonball in....

Just my 2 cents of (perhaps) sense...;)

Personally, I like them.  But I like all types of amps.  Viva la difference. *S*
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