Which Class D Amplifier? PS Audio, Ghent, Nord, Merrill or other???


I’m looking for a new amp & want Class D.

I’ve seen various brands mentioned, such as PS Audio, Ghent, Nord, Merrel to name a few, but I’ve not heard any of them.

Which company is producing the best sounding Class D?
Which models should I be looking to demo?


Thanks



singintheblues
As Noble 100 stated in his experience with a quality Class D amp, I fully concur; its the lack of noise, extremely low distortion and amazing detail that struck me right off.  

And since I am such a 'green eco' type, I don't feel guilty with running these mono's for hours on end as they are so efficient.

Here is an interesting point of note:  my Anthem M1's do not come with a schematic which I wanted to read with an engineer friend of mine.  I called Anthem and asked if I could get a copy and they told me no.  They will not supply any schematics to the public, only to authorized service technicians.  I asked why they have this policy and I was told that they invested millions of dollars and years of time developing the M1 design and they consider it proprietary in all respects.  I can understand this philosophy and I don't blame them.

I was interested in how they handled the mitigation of high frequency harshness which inexpensive Class D designs are known to suffer.  The M1 is so smooth that it's uncanny.  And if anyone is interesting in looking online at some of the YouTube videos on it, you'll be quite impressed with the copper heat pipes which are liquid filled (some type of alcohol I am told) which draw the heat through convection currents away from the finals to the heat sinks on the side of the amp.  These amps feel like Capt. Kirk's USS Enterprise to me :)


I have a system with a pair of Sonus Faber Amati Futura and a full loom of Nordost Valhalla.
My first amp was Audio Research DSI200. A Class D amp with a somewhat warm and rich sound. Nice if you are looking for a slightly "tubey" signature.  
I then switched to Jeff Rowland Continuum S2. This is has a cooler presentation with slightly better bass control. It was good but I felt like it lacked "soul". 
So I left the Class-D world and found the magic in an A/B called Gryphon Diablo 300. IMO this amp is way more organic and soulful. The bass control is miles better than the Jeff Rowland despite it had 2x800 W. For some reason it was not the perfect match for my speakers who venture under 3 Ohm in the bass region. I always thought I had a "bass problem" in my listening room. It turned out the solution was getting a better amp. 
I have owned/reviewed:
Acoustic Imagery Atsah (NCore 1200)
Audio Alchemy DPA-1 (?)
Nord One Up (NCore 500)
PS Audio Stellar S300 (Icepower)
Rotel RMB-1565 (Icepower, currently my HT amp)
Emerald Physics EP100.2SE (?)
Wyred 4 Sound ST-500-II (Icepower)
Wyred 4 Sound ST-750LE (IceEdge Icepower)

The Wyred 4 Sound ST-750LE is still in use while the rest have found new homes.

Happy listening!

Regards,
JerryS
10audio.com
Consider the amps made by Wyred for Sound.  I use a pair of SX-1000 in a bi-amp configuration with a pair of class AB amps driving MBL speakers.
I have some older Bel Canto units (before the Black series), pre and amp that have been superb. Super low noise, lots of oomph, sweet midrange on my Merlin VSM's, and I can leave them on all the time!