What is the future of amp technolgy?

Spectron seems to be doing interesting things with digital class D amplifiers. Some people seem to love it. I personally have only heard it on a low-fi system at CES and did not and do not have the expertise it would take to isolate the 'potentially great sounding amplifier' from the many 'weakest links' of the overall system.

Here is the link:

Spectron

From my perspective as a software geek, this is the future. Oversampling in the multi-Mhz range, 128bit word lengths... The technology to archive and reproduce music will be perfect. The only problems will be the analog to digital on the front end (microphones, etc.) and D to A on the back end (amplifier output stage and speakers).

We will get there in time...

Purely an opinion of course, but I really think that all three types of amps (and hybrids) will continue to co-exist for a long time-- of course just in the high end community. A select sub-group of audiophiles will always swear by a pure tube approach for example, and innovative/imaginative designers will continue to experiment with all new technologies. It wouldn't surprise me to eventually see disagreements between SS "analog" amp owners and digital amp owners.

I usually agree with most of Tim's opinions, but on this we disagree on much. I love my HQ digital system and have gone to great lengths to make it musical. I use a tube pre-amp and solid state amp, and love the synergy-- the SS amp is smooth, fast, and powerful with excellent bass control, and the tube pre-amp adds-- well, some of the "magic" of tubes. Cheers. Craig

Craig-That is my point in audio!! one mans virtue is anothers fault, that's why are system's are different ;)

fwiw I only have a digital source, so I am sort of an odd duck-but we all knew this already!

I also play some guitar as an alternate hobby (like I need one). In the guitar world tube amps rule, and are prized for their colorations and distortions. This is almost the polar opposite of the hifi view.

In recent years various guitar amp manufacturers have introduced digital modeling amps. These use lots of computer processing power to run a digital model of various classic guitar amps (i.e. various Fender, Marshall, Vox, Matchless etc amplifiers).

At first the results were like a caricature of the real tube amp sound and feel (the way the amp responds to the player's nuances). However, with faster processors and better digital modeling techniques, the current crop of modeling amps are coming surprisingly close to the originals they emulate. They even capture amp-speaker interaction.

So I wonder about the intermediate future of hi-fi amplification. Might we see an advanced version of digital amplifier modeling coupled with room modeling and a Class D output stage to give us the sound of any of out favorite classic tube (or solid state) amplifiers? Imagine being able to change amp models on the fly from a remote control to select just the right one for the music at hand.

But could we as audiophiles accept such an innovation?

Question: What determines a digital amp to be a "digital" amp? Are Tact and the amps used in Meridian DSP speakers considered "digital"? I think these amps merely have signal processors built into them?

With the half of the majority playing mp3 off discmans, portable mp3 players and computer speakers, and the other half of the majority wasting their money on home theaters, there really isn't any opportunity for growth in regards to tube technology.

Plus, eventually, even die-hard tube lovers will convert to ss or digital once NOS vintage tubes run out.

Quality of sounds probably isn't the main issue here.