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The Truth about Modern Class D

All my amps right now are Class D. ICEpower in the living room, and NAD D 3020 in the bedroom.

I’ve had several audiophiles come to my home and not one has ever said "Oh, that sounds like Class D."

Having said this, if I could afford them AND had the room, I’d be tempted to switch for a pair of Ayre monoblocks or Conrad Johnson Premiere 12s and very little else.

I’m not religious about Class D. They sound great for me, low power, easy to hide, but if a lot of cash and the need to upgrade ever hits me, I could be persuaded.

The point: Good modern Class D amps just sound like really good amplifiers, with the usual speaker/source matching issues.

You don’t have to go that route, but it’s time we shrugged off the myths and descriptions of Class D that come right out of the 1980’s.
erik_squires
mr_bill
347 posts
 
This thread has gone AWOL. 
ricevs
1,543 posts
 

As my friend used to say "it all comes out in the wash"......meaning....it will be shown with time and experimentation which things do what as far as sound quality.  We have George repeating over and over and over and over and over and over.....he he..... about phase shift due to filter effects....trouble is, he is guessing about its sonic effect.  He knows nothing because he has not heard anything......he is just talking.  He likes to repeat himself, repeat himself, repeat himself.  But he has no actual information based on listening tests (the only thing real in audio). 

We have Merrill who has made an amp with low dead time and the amp will show us something about what he says.  George will show us nothing about what he says.  Hey, I think GANs, zero dead time and higher frequency switching (and lots of other things too) COULD make better sound. But only those who actually experiment and listen will know.  We are at the beginning of a new stage in Class D.  As these things get implemented by more companies it will show/prove what is really valuable.  I believe that before long even the Merrill amps will be boat anchors.  This game never ends.  IcePower, Pascal, UCD (come on Bruno, let's see some GANs in your amps!), DAC, Nuprime (already switching at 700K), etc. will make amp modules with GANs, higher speed switching, etc......and these modules/amps will be very affordable.  Viva La Revolution!  I just talked to the IcePower distributor today and he is going to talk to the engineers at IcePower about what is being said here.  All technology has a very short window of opportunity (as it keeps improving and changing).  Merrill is riding the first wave of GAN madness.  I bet there are many more waves coming. This ride is fun!  We have a lot to look forward to......better sound, smaller amps, less power consumption and less cost.  A win for everyone.

jackd
1,074 posts
 
Seems to be very easy on this forum to attract attention for theories that have nothing to do with what you have heard much less owned and it is the same posters over and over in thread after thread.  When you have an opinion of a technology much less a product tell us when you actually heard it and under what circumstances.  It is pretty obvious that these members have never owned the products in question.  If so tell us what they were. 
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georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 

We have George repeating over and over and over and over and over and over.....he he..... about phase shift due to filter effects....trouble is, he is guessing about its sonic effect. He knows nothing because he has not heard anything......he is just talking.

Ok, were stooping down to that level.

Many of us know your comments are biased and maybe in it for the monitory gain, and you’ll say anything because of this, and your protection of it.
http://tweakaudio.com/EVS-2/EVS_1200_amplifier.html
I have no financial interest in Class-D at all, just what I hear and others report..

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