2. amps-preamps
  3. 1404873838

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
ebm
9,311 posts
 
Have PASS 350.8 350 ch its plenty and sounds wonderful.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,478 posts
 
Higher efficiency class d amps up the ante in terms of power available when needed. Very "green" as well.
wolf_garcia
6,734 posts
 
Tube amp freaks are mostly not in this discussion as few bother with the extreme high horsepower versions as they just generate too much heat...the ones who do bother with those must have great ventilation or no clothing. Class D ain't going away, but might be kicked around by Class G or whatever's next among the switching amp crowd. I own a Class D bass amp (Ampeg PF) that sounds fine, so at least I'm on board the train so to speak.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,478 posts
 
lass g is older technology. I had a hitachi sr 804 once. Nice piece but pretty average sound.

Class. D is much more sophisticated modern technology that makes sense to me. When I read about class g it does not sound like such a great idea anymore.

I'd be more interested in tube amps if class d did not turn out to float my boat so well. Class d offers some good attributes of both ss and tube sound.

Two extreme ways to go these days it seems to me. More efficient amps to get the most out of popular smaller less efficient speakers or power hungry low output tube amps with very large efficient speakers. At least if we are talking full range in larger rooms.
scm
314 posts
 
I had a Rogue ST90 with KT120`s (100 Watt), sounded very VERY nice but I felt as though I needed more power for 'Those Occasions' and my Revel F52`s certainly can use up some power. But I was leery of pushing the tube amp too far.

I sold the Rogue and put a Class D Audio SDS-470 in its place (300/600 Watt) for the $$ the Class D 470 reminds me of the NAD 3020 I bought when it first came out.
I Used that 3020 with DCM Time Windows in a small room at the time and the combo was crazy good sounding !

This Class D Audio amp is crazy good too !! Plenty of power, runs cool, looks cool (silver w/blue leds) has great left-right imaging and nice depth and has bass power too.

But I`m realizing 'Those Occasions' don`t happen as often as I thought and I miss the small detailed subtleties, like the cymbals as they fade off/decay and other things that tubes are good at.

Anyway...Now I`m looking for a Rogue Atlas and I`ll keep the Class D here for those other occasions :)
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