Classe D amps have come a long way and have gone through significant improvements sonically compared to early class D designs from back in the day. Overall performance wise I myself still prefer analog (class A or AB) amps or tubes indeed, but nowadays I’ve heard very good class D designs such as the Classe Sigma amplifiers which are class D design that uses Classe’s own proprietary class D design circuitry.
These Classe Sigma class D design amplifiers sounded better than most class D design amps I’ve heard out there, they are smooth, very dynamics, refined, highly resolved, very transparent, fast, has rhtymic drive. The highs are very smooth surprisingly and they have very good separations between different instruments and vocals within the soundstage and have good amounts of air and space between them but they somewhat lack midrange and mid-bass bloom and the bass power but the lower bass goes really deep and is very extended but the mid to upper bass are somewhat lacking in comparison to Classe’s own class AB designs (Classe Delta series amps) or class A designs (Classe Omega series amps). Classe’s own class AB or A design amps have fuller sounds and more musical and quieter and better overall than its class D designs found in its Sigma series amps.
But in contrary to what someone said earlier in this thread that class D amps lack air, not all class D amps lack air. These Classe Sigma series class D amps do not lack air IMO. Some cheaper and lower end class D design amps might lack air but not these Classe Sigma series amps.
But yes I agree that all class D design amps lack soul, lush sound, the artist’s expressions and overall musicality but they are good for HT applications IMO they are very dynamic and fast which will suit well for HT system especially those DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby True-HD or even Dolby Atmos & DTS-X formats from bluray & 4k UHD bluray discs.
In regards to Ayre, Parasound Halo, Pass amps I think they are all very good amps in their price points but again it all depends on your speakers and the rest of your setup eg preamp, front end source components, cables, etc. One amplifier could sound really good on certain speakers and in certain setups but not necessarily will have the same good sonic synergy or overall results in different setups and systems.
I believe in overall system synergy, interactions between different components within your setup and system thus achieve overall sound quality or audio performance of your setup and system.
Just my 2 cents.
These Classe Sigma class D design amplifiers sounded better than most class D design amps I’ve heard out there, they are smooth, very dynamics, refined, highly resolved, very transparent, fast, has rhtymic drive. The highs are very smooth surprisingly and they have very good separations between different instruments and vocals within the soundstage and have good amounts of air and space between them but they somewhat lack midrange and mid-bass bloom and the bass power but the lower bass goes really deep and is very extended but the mid to upper bass are somewhat lacking in comparison to Classe’s own class AB designs (Classe Delta series amps) or class A designs (Classe Omega series amps). Classe’s own class AB or A design amps have fuller sounds and more musical and quieter and better overall than its class D designs found in its Sigma series amps.
But in contrary to what someone said earlier in this thread that class D amps lack air, not all class D amps lack air. These Classe Sigma series class D amps do not lack air IMO. Some cheaper and lower end class D design amps might lack air but not these Classe Sigma series amps.
But yes I agree that all class D design amps lack soul, lush sound, the artist’s expressions and overall musicality but they are good for HT applications IMO they are very dynamic and fast which will suit well for HT system especially those DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby True-HD or even Dolby Atmos & DTS-X formats from bluray & 4k UHD bluray discs.
In regards to Ayre, Parasound Halo, Pass amps I think they are all very good amps in their price points but again it all depends on your speakers and the rest of your setup eg preamp, front end source components, cables, etc. One amplifier could sound really good on certain speakers and in certain setups but not necessarily will have the same good sonic synergy or overall results in different setups and systems.
I believe in overall system synergy, interactions between different components within your setup and system thus achieve overall sound quality or audio performance of your setup and system.
Just my 2 cents.