Class D Technology

@sonicbeauty

I can understand this.  I once owned a Honda Accord that started making this sound that can only be described as sounding like the car was passing wind.   Every time you stepped on the accelerator, that first second of acceleration, it sounded and felt like the car had eaten too many burritos.  Sounds crazy, but it felt and sounded awful, like sitting on a whoopie cushion.  Took it back to two different dealers, both said it was normal.  Dumped that thing, bought a Camry, and have never visited a Honda dealer since.  Logically, I KNOW that Honda makes great cars, I like how they look, but I just can't go back...

But they still had a stripping of the harmonic structure of the upper/midrange and highs, leaving what seemed to be just the fundamental with no decay and an opaque sound with larger than usual "nothing" gaps in the music.

This is the perfect description of my experience with Ice Power. I have heard others describe this sound as neutral and uncolored, but to me the vocals and instruments sounded stripped. Diana Krall sounded more like Katy Perry. The larger than usual nothing gaps in the music made me focus on the recording instead of enjoying the song. 

It seems like some companies are aware of this and add tube input stages to try and add harmonics and meat back to the bone.  

I do not hear that at all.

Be careful about taking a small sample and drawing conclusions from that on the whole. I’d have to hear the same setup others have heard this with, Only then could I comment on the sound resulting from that particular setup and compare to others.

If you are listening to Diana Krall, and you hear Katy Perry, the problem is much larger than amplifier technology.   You either have one heck of a malfunctioning system, a set of speakers that were dropped out of a truck before being delivered to you, or you are experiencing neurological problems that require immediate medical attention.  I'm not being facetious...Katy Perry and Diana Krall sound nothing alike, aside from both being female.  If that's genuinely what your ears heard, you have bigger issues than deciding what amp to buy.

seanheis1 OP

It seems like some companies are aware of this and add tube input stages to try and add harmonics and meat back to the bone.  

Yep, agreed Sean, that's called microphonics, colorations, distortions or euphonics, and not the real harmonics of the instruments or voice that are supposed to be there, but hey some people like it, each to their own.

Cheers George