Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

TBG,

Variety is the spice of life!

TBG - have you heard a class D from Rowland or Merrill Audio? Condemning class D forever because of what class D used to be is like saying you don't like modern Cadillacs because your grandfather used to drive a Caddy u-boat.....

Norm, as Matt said, today's class D amps can be a far cry from the uninspiring sound of early low end class D devices common during the early part of the last decade.

Mind you, class D has the same potential for magic and horridity as any other class of operation... It all depends on underlying active and passive componentry, sophistication of circuit design, execution, quality control, and musical/sonic goals and phylosophy of the designer/engineer.

Like with any other class of operation, some companies and designers have been more successful than other companies, and within the same company, some devices have been more successful than other ones in delivering audio nirvana at their respective price points. And some outliers still seem bent to producing an acrid sound... But isn't that true of the industry in general?!

It's worth being experimentalists and shed preconceived notions... Unavoidably, some amps we will love, and some we will hate... The important thing is to listen with our ears, and suspend judgement until we can apply our musical evaluation in situ, on a case by case basis, while avoiding the pitfalls of apriori induction logic.

Admittedly, there is one thing that a big honking class D amp might have problems achieving.... That is to turn your music room into an oven.

G.

Guidocorona, yep, I listen with my ears. I have heard probably 20 different class D amps and can always hear that edge. I own three different amps now. Two are class AB with one running pretty hot, The H-Cat X-10, and the other at about room temperature, the LSA Statement Plus. My other amp, the BMC M2 monoblocks, I have never heard their classification. I continually switch between the H-Cat and the BMCs. The LSA has just become a backup.

I was so fascinated by the quad DSD recording in the German Physics/Merging Technologies room that I've forgotten their amps. Whatever they were the sound was great. If it was class D, I will eat my words.

Tbg - I just checked and that room at RMAF was using Ayre Acoustics electronics between the Merging Technologies DAC and the German Physiks speakers.