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

tweak1:
"I hear zero nasties unless recorded on the cd, and boy I can really hear how poorly mastered some cds are."

Hello tweak1,

    I'm glad you like the initial sound of your new PSA 700M amps. My class D amps have only improved in sq over time.
     Some of the main and most obvious characteristics of good class D amps are their neutrality, low distortion and low background noise level. These qualities combined together results in a highly transparent and detailed presentation that is very revealing. As you're aware, good recordings sound amazingly good but bad recordings sound obviously bad, too. 
     However, I don't think anyone would describe the accuracy of good class D amps as a downside. I believe a person can be guilty of being too truthful and honest but not an audio amp.
     Some may prefer a less revealing amp that doesn't so clearly demonstrate the poor recording quality of some of their musical content. It is frustrating to discover some of your music was not well mastered and recorded.  But I still prefer the accurate and honest attributes because the good recordings sound so incredibly good.
     Unfortunately, good recordings of good music are not as abundant as I'd like but that's a whole related subject that's justifiably been the topic of  other separate threads in the past.  

Tim

Tim, of course.

I have a few torture dics- Annie Lennox Annie Lennox (solo) Jennifer Nettles Playing With Fire and Wilson Philips. It had been a couple weeks since playing JN and although the poor recordings sucked, they sucked less, as the M700s were able to unravel more; or was it the dac in the Stellar GC... or was it that the amps took better control of my speakers..., or the large space, or some combination? Hard to tell 

Last night and this morning the XLO break in disc has been on repeat to expedite that final bit of break in. Probably should have done that from day one.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SMD-Dact-type-Stepped-attenuator-Passive-Preamplifier/192132688811?hash=ite...

Hey Guys,
Any thoughts on this guy's passive pre's?

I was looking at them, it seems he uses high quality SMD Dact style pots; but I'm a little skeptical because of the price. Is it possible the pots he uses are cheap "knock-offs"?
The price-point is really good; but it could be the hint as to what the product really is.
Has anyone tried one of these passives?

I was also looking at the Parasound Zpre3; seems really nice. But I wonder how neutral it is being that it's not a passive type preamp.

Thanks for your thoughts

I wouldn't consider it for a system aspiring to hi-end

 Hattor, and Tortuga aer 2 I highly recommend

Also (and I learned this the hard way) one needs to make sure the impedance is a match

tweak1,

     Understood.  I no longer listen to Coldplay discs on my home system due to poor recording quality but I still enjoy these discs on my OEM car system.
     I've discovered that music files recorded direct to digital are especially good source material that are consistently well recorded and mastered.  I have several hi-res 24bit/96KHz FLAC files downloaded from a Dutch site called Sound Liaison:
https://www.soundliaison.com/
     
     These are all direct to digital master recordings of live music played at their large studio. Downloads are available in various digital formats from FLAC to DSD.  
     The audio quality is excellent top to bottom with uncompressed dynamics that make them easily sound better than my ripped cds. 

Tim