Class A/B Home THeater Receivers

Hi all... I want to thank you all for your insightful feedback. Let me tell you why I’m looking to go "old School" (that is, Class A/B)... I’m 65 years old, and after approximately 50 years of listening to music way too loud, my ears are not what they used to be... They’re certainly not "Golden Ears" any more... So, an AVR will satisfy me just as much as separates at this point. Also, the main reason I want Class A/B instead of Class D is that I want an analog amplifier, rather than a digital amplifier... I was listening to some high end Marantz AVR’s in an audio store, and the owner told me that one was Class A/B and the other was Class D (I take him at his word)... I actually thought the Class D sounded a little cleaner and more detailed... but then I started researching customer reviews of those AVR, and I was surprised to fin that there are TONS of technical problems, and outright failures, of the Class D amps... Truthfully, I’m not shocked to read that. I’ve been in IT for almost 40 years, and I know how hard it is to program something new and innovative... it can take years to perfect the code and work out the bugs... Hence, my desire for an old fashioned analog amp... The only issue I find is the question of HDMI connections... it seems the best Class A/B AVR’s are from about 10 years ago, when HDMI was not yet a feature... I currently have a Rotel AVR (100 Watts per channel) that does not have HDMI, and I thought I wanted to upgrade to a more modern AVR... but I find myself looking at older AVR’s like the McIntosh MHT100 or MHT200, or some of the older Lexicon models, like t he RV-5 and the RV-8... I’ve lived without HDMI for this long, maybe I can live without it forever... Anyway, Thanks again to all who took the time to reply.

Hi David,

I understand that Bruce prefers a class A/B AVR because that’s what he’s always used and he’s comfortable with this traditional technology. Unfortunately, he seems to have gotten some false information that class D technology has had reliability issues and he generally seems poorly informed on the numerous advantages of class D. To be fair, this is likely due to Bruce having little to no exposure to class D.

My view, based on research and personal experience, is that switching from all class A/B amplification to all class D amplification results in superior performance in all areas that audio enthusiasts care about such as a lower noise floor, lower distortion levels, better bass response, greater dynamic range and generally coming closer to the audio ideal of a ’straight wire with gain’. There’s also other benefits not directly related to sound quality such as smaller size, less weight, affordability, no heat sinks required,less heat emitted, significantly higher efficiency and reduced electricity usage. To further tip the scales, all these benefits are gained with zero costs or negatives that I’ve become aware of during the past 2 yrs I’ve used class D amps.

So, as the owner of an A/V company, I’m interested about your views on class A/B vs class D amps and just have a few questions if you’re willing:

1. Do you recommend class A/B to all your customers?

2. Can you name any important performance measure or quality in which class A/B is superior to class D?

3. Can you name any important performance measure or quality that could be in any way accurately be described as a cost, ’negative’ or sacrifice of switching from class A/B to class D? I honestly cannot.

4. Have you ever compared one of your popular A/V systems using all class A/B amplification to the identical one using all class D amplification? If so, can you share the results?

5. Does your company even carry or sell any class D amps or receivers?

I’m not familiar with your A/V business but I’m fairly sure you have extensive experience in selling and installing many A/V systems. Because of this, I’m sincerely interested in your viewpoint.

Thank you,
Tim

Bruce,

  You stated:

" I actually thought the Class D sounded a little cleaner and more detailed... but then I started researching customer reviews of those AVR, and I was surprised to fin that there are TONS of technical problems, and outright failures, of the Class D amps."

     Tons of technical problems with class D amps?

    First I've heard of this, I hope you're not a believer in 'alternative facts' ala Kellyanne Conway.


Tim