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Thinking of replacing my Bat spaceheater with class D, real world thoughts please

Ok so I know there are already lots of threads on class D both negative and positive

As I have had a very positive result with replacing the ss amps in my ht rig with a single tiny Nuforce class D amp I was tempted to look into the same for my stereo rig.

This is a little more difficult as my present amp is a BAT VK600SE, 120LB of muscle and heat.

Now I am in love with my present sound but still am very curious if class D could do anything for me as it certainly did in the ht rig although those ss amps were not in the BAT league to start with.

So I would like to hear from people who have actually gone this route, replaced their expensive, heavy, power consuming amps with tiny little cold running boxes and what their results were.

Was it uplifting, about the same or make you wish you had never heard of class D!

128x128uberwaltz
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
Again thanks to all but for now the BAT/Wilson. McIntosh combo I am using right now is making me very happy and I am doing just what any good audiophile should...which is just sit back and enjoy the music!

TBH the room where my rig is located is acousticaly terrible being mainly glass and tile so until I move in the next 2 years or so I am probably just going to leave well alone as any changes may be more noticable in a well damped room not the glass palace I am relegated to right now. 
david_ten
5,480 posts
 
@tango_tilingo  I'm curious as to which amps you've had prior to going with the Veritas and what your system was comprised of (prior to the Christine) and your speakers? Thank you.
whitestix
716 posts
 
This an an excellent thread with lots of contrasting views.  I have recently auditioned the NuPrime ST-10 and the Red Dragon S-500 class D stereo amps.  I thought they both sounded excellent, no question, and they run very cool.  After about 60 hours on both of the amps, I swapped my McCormack DNA .05 Deluxe class A/B amp into my system and I was amazed that someone was again present in the music that was not there with the class D amps.  Maybe it was just the distortion, no idea, but the McCormack amp seems so much more engaging to my ears.  

To wit, I took the $1.8K Red Dragon over to my audio-fool friend's system to swap for his $10K ARC Reference 75 SE tube amp and he actually prefers the Red Dragon to his this ARC amp!  He has listened to it for a week and still loves it.  So, the thing of it is that you would be well advised to demo some of these class D amps to see if they are to your liking. If you go the class D route, you no longer with have a "room heater" and can forget about the hassle and cost of replacing tubes, which is a huge plus.  There is a lot of like about class D amps, but to my ears, they leave out something in the musical experience.  
kw6
692 posts
 
The only class D which is close to tubes is the Devialet and it still has problems in the treble region.
kuribo
524 posts
 
Yeah, properly designed class d doesn't have the distortion spectrum of tube amps.

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