D-SONIC SOA Class-D Core Amps. The best Class-D ?

I bought the demo M2-600M monoblocks from D-Sonic. I have been listening to them for 4 days now and they already far exceed my expectations. I am still juggling around power cords and screwing around with component placement now that these tiny boxes freed up a huge chunk of turf behind my speakers. I'm using these in a music only system that has recently suffered a catastrophic OTL amplifier failure. I can't afford to fix the amps and am hoping (like a QB throwing a Hail Mary at the last second) these new-fangled class D amps may offer at least some of the magic I used to have.

Due to all the setup issues I still need to plod through until I know I have done my best to hear them at their best, I can't honestly compare them meaningfully to a pair of amps I have had for nearly 25 years the cost then 4x as much as these. At this early stage, I will say that I already know there is a lot of magic in these things and I suspect that I haven't heard them at their best yet. I believe that they may be the most transparent and revealing amps I have ever heard and that they will be ruthless about reproducing everything good or bad in from of them in the chain. I suspect they may get me closer to the correct VTA & azimuth settings. Very musical, bass power and articulation that just don't quit, gorgeous reproduction of strings and horns, All are right up there, but they are not tube amps. After the first two nights with them, I realized that part of the "tubiness" I was missing had nothing to do with the sound of the amps or even with the sense of hearing at all. I Missed the heat and the orange glow - sight and touch senses. I rectified that with a couple of candles and turning up the room temp a couple of degrees. I think I will suggest to Dennis to throw a few lumps of charcoal and some candles in the box whenever he is shipping an amp to someone who whines about it not having tubes.

If you guys want, I can come back with more observations about the amps as they get settled in. I am really excited about these amps filling some really big shoes in my system.

Mcbuddah..please keep us informed on your progress with the D-Sonic amps. Of course, only having them burned in for four days, you have a long way to go and are in for a real treat based on the 6Moons review last September. After extensive burn in, 6Moons described the amps as more organic and full, with much smoother, more laid back high frequencie's, then other class D amp's they have tested, and found them closer to tubes then previous Class D design's. I'm certain in two weeks the amps will settle down and fall into their true character and look forward to your on going impressions in the next several weeks.

Hi McBuddah, yes please keep us posted on how the M2-600M amps break in.... Unless the Abletec modules behave tremendously different from old ICEpower, you may expect a 600 hours to 1200 hours of music making before they reach peak and yield their very best. G.

Hi AudioZen, as far as I know, Continuum S2 will be priced in mid $9K for its basic version, and will still shy below $10K for the versions that incorporate the optional DAC card or the optional Phonostage card.

I have since learned that the preamplification circuit of Continuum S2 is based on the new Capri S2 preamplifier... I Also heard that the Capri S2 circuit, as well as the DAC card, were developed in an engineering collaboration with Danish company Holm Acoustics.

There is no way for me to know how far along they are in the burn-in process because they were demos and not absolutely brand new. Mr. Deacon had loaned them out to someone for a short while. I would like to put at least 250 more hours on them before doing too much critical listening, but it's hard to resist the urges to pop up and fix something I know is wrong. Last night I listened to a Japanese reissue of Jon Faddis' 1976 "Youngblood" album where he works out with Dizzy's rhythm section. At the very end of Gershwin's Prelude # 2 there is a massive crescendo. While Jon is blowing away like the angel Gabriel, Micky Roker ends the piece with massive cymbal crashes whose transients sound all crumpled up in the in the mix with the horn. The last 5 seconds of the tune almost set me to packing up the amps for an airplane ride back to Texas. I went at it again today and figured out that my VTA was set imperfectly even though I thought I had nailed it months ago. I dialed it in again after a few hours of really hard work listening to more records and all is fine again. It seems to me that these amps are so revealing and play so cleanly at high volumes that very small changes in tonearm/cartridge geometry are easily heard. Obviously, these amps are not a drop-in replacement in my system and will require a lot of TLC to sound their best.