2. amps-preamps
  3. 1022672181

Digital amp beat them all? Audio Physic Strada .

The german magazine Stereoplay has(in its June issue) a review of the new Audio Physic Strada monoblocks.
Like most german audio magazines this has also a preferance for ranking products in a hierarcic manner.
Interestinly, the new monoblocks from Audio Physic gets
60 point (on a scale that end with 63 points), while the
mag´s former reference Krell FPB 650 M gets 59 p.
For your knowledge;Electrocompaniet Nemo gets 58 p, the same as Pass X-350.
Althought the fact that I am sceptical about ranking systems
in Audio,I find it remarkable that a digital amp allready
can compete with some of (what is regarded) as "top-flight"
amps!
The Strada monoblocks has a switched powersupply and some
innovative curcuitry,e.g. it seems to be handling signals
of low amplitude in analog way, and switches over to digital mode for higher amplitudes in some form of bridge
output section. Sorry, my understanding of technical german
isn´t splendid.
They deliver 255 W/each in 8 Ohms, and costs about 15000 Euro a pair.
What do you think? Are digital amps taking over the scene
in the years to come, or will there be a "resistance movement" corresponding to that of CD-anlog?
dinos
muralman1
1,527 posts
 
Sounds like good news, although I do not agree with their high Krell ranking, unless they are bass heads over there. The digital TACT has been getting rave owner reviews too. It looks like the future alright. If digital can be made cheaper, smaller, cheaper, more efficient, cheaper, and all the time sound better - it will be a winner.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
...it's just there are more and more artificial imaging lovers(even more possibility to create!). In fact I do not accept TACT performance as a true reproduction of a recorded music.
edle
235 posts
 
We all tried the digital revolution in CD and its suck......
Now the digital amp...........................even though I didn't hear it myself. I already believe that it is a sucking product. Why? Signal come into the digital amp, then amplify digitally I assume and then lastly converting it back into analog signal then go to the speakers....... What do you think it will sound like?
With CD reproduction most of the tiny information like the harmonic, ambient are already gone. It is very dry already. Now add the digital amp into the equation, it will become even dryer and this is before the digital amp converting the signal back to analog. After that what left?
If the German magazine said it is no. 1, then one less magazine to read or more product catalog to read.......
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
...after auditioning TACT RCS2 in my analogue setup I've said to myself addressing my dealer: How dare you to give me that artificial mega-buck crap???... and came back to my simple and passive preamp. Was this an attempt to "correct" or digitalize the turntable's ability to naturally image without any correction engine...???

Yes the signal is being sampled to be transfered to the digital domain and than amplified with room correction or other artificial imaging that can be set up through the appropriate software.
unsound
7,329 posts
 
Marakanetz, can you be more specific as to the abberations you heard via the Tact? I do believe that a turntable requires some "correction" (RIAA) to restore the original sound. Edle, I believe it is possible to keep the signal in the digital domain with out converting to analog. I also believe that most new recordings are mostly digital requiring analog conversion on most home systems. Blind prejudice is not going to further the development of our hobby. Call me a heretic, but I prefer digital to the scraping of stone against plastic at varying speeds with little opportunity to reconcile the unavoidable inconsistentcies of differing speaker /room interactions.
More to discover