While I'm assembling my comparisons of available class D amps, a few corrections of the myths already evolving regarding these things are in order, courtesy of my father, a well repected audio engineer for the various recording studios and soundstages here in Los Angeles. Class D circuit topology has been around since 1947. Infinity made an attempt to develop them first in the 70s with Carver and of late Tact Millennium further desecrating their potential. The genre was resurrected by the EU's mandate that power supplies not backwash "hash" onto their 220v system which necessitates class D switching power supplies or major performance restricting filters on conventional power supplies such as those found on most North American amplifiers such as Krell, Audio Research, Classe, Bryston, Theta, Pass Labs, VTL, Boulder, Conrad Johnson, Rowland, Levinson, you know those antiquated slouches. If we can do it to their cars once they achieve certain market share here (smog devices, retractable bumpers, etc) why wouldn't they do it to our amps? I think an American free-ranging Ferrari might have the same effect as European free-ranging Boulder. Who knows?
Whatever the case, the first really listenable class D amp was developed exclusively by Karsten Nielsen of Bang & Olufsen who was allowed to form his own subsidiary called ICEpower. Acoustic Reality had nothing to do with the development, only the hype. And Nielsen himself is embarrassed by the Euro-Hype surrounding his product as he expressed in his candid presentation of its limitations at the Audio Engineering Society Convention in NYC this past October, which I attended. Any rush to get on the "feeding chain" will be determined by the need to serve the EU market. To which Muralman's "Jiffy-Pop" analogy should prove especiably translatable.
