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The End Of Big Iron?

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Once upon a time you could buy a 1,000 wpc, a 900 wpc and a 750 wpc monoblock from Krell. You could buy a 1,000 wpc monoblock from Pass Labs. Now, 575 wpc is the biggest you can get from Krell and 600 wpc is the biggest you can get from Pass Labs. The muscle of flagship amps in those mfgs has been virtually halved. I mean, was 1,000 wpc, 900 wpc, or a 750 wpc amplifier ever necessary? If they were, why are they no longer necessary? What has changed in audio or speaker technology to cause the dwindling of 'muscle' amps?
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128x128mitch4t
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,478 posts
 
Class D is basically high efficiency amp technology that is newer than traditional Class A or B, but has come into its own these days when power and current is still needed but not the size, bulk, and cost.

I love my Class D amps and will likely never look back from here. That includes tube amps as well.
dave_72
1,399 posts
 
I had a Class D amp. I didn't care for it and it ran out of gas early and overheated. To be fair, it was a mass produced Onkyo, and it's probably not the ultimate in Class D design. Right now, I have an A/B amp; the sound is good, but not phenomenal. It is a bit restricted dynamically. It doesn't breathe like a great Class A amp will. But it doesn't really run out of gas and overheat like the Onkyo did. Anyway, those are my thoughts at the moment on Class D and amps in general.
macrojack
1,303 posts
 
I think there was an escalating contest among "big iron" manufacturers of the day. Consumers tend to latch onto categorical assets, real or otherwise, and when makers get that scent they run with it. In the case of the amps in question, momentum carried them well beyond anything sane or useful before common sense among consumers signaled a cease and desist to Krell and their competitors.

As an aside, does anyone else think that Krell looked like what the army would create if they were designing amplifiers.
p59teitel
314 posts
 
Maybe Krell and Pass gave up the Wattage Wars when this fella came along:

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/1011/boulder_3050_monoblocks.htm
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
8,089 posts
 
If "big iron" has gone out of fashion, it seems that McIntosh and Musical Fidelity haven't heard about it.
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