Class D Technology

ultimate transparency / cleaness / hifi is no more their goal these days

Those never were my goals.  Although resolution and a quiet background (similar to what you may mean by transparency/cleaness) are expected attributes in higher end gear, excellent tone, dimensionality and dynamics are more important to my enjoyment and, in my experience, it can be hard to find all three in a component.

Mitch2, well said and oh so true! 

What I’ve been trying to get across re the Class-D’s switch noise and it’s associated output filter, trying to eliminate that noise without effecting the audio band.
This is a page by the actual component manufacturer that allows the new mega expensive Technics SE-R1 to double the speed of it’s switching frequency, which in turn allows the filter to do a better job, and be less destructive to the audio band.
They still need to double it again before I’ll dip my feet into Class-D.
http://epc-co.com/epc/GaNTalk/Post/13752

Cheers George

I've been living with ICEPower based amps for six months, I don't hear any of the issues being discussed, and my speakers have extension beyond 30kHz.

Is there no need to advance in this direction in raising the switching frequency then?? Too many myself included think it is.

Quote from manufacturer of these new transitors, who btw invented the Mosfet power transistor.

" Higher PWM switching frequencies allow for a higher audio bandwidth, and hence higher-frequency output filters. As a side benefit, this higher-frequency output filter allows for smaller output filter components (especially, the Inductors) without compromising the sonic performance.

In addition to offering higher audio bandwidths (which is increasingly important for the new high-definition audio requirements), the increased PWM switching rates also allow for more moderate output filter slopes, which offer more linear performance without introducing higher levels of residual switching noise."

Cheers George