The Truth about Modern Class D

brianlucey

+1 well said.

Talking about "sonic signatures" of amplifiers it is worthwhile to mention  (and read about) Bob Carver and Bruno Putzeys.
The Carver Challenge | Stereophile.com
Bob Carver - Wikipedia
"Carver caused a stir in the industry in the mid-1980s when he challenged two high-end audio magazines to give him any audio amplifier at any price, and he’d duplicate its sound in one of his lower cost (and usually much more powerful) designs. Two magazines accepted the challenge."

Bruno Putzeys: Head of the Class (D, That is) | Sound & Vision

6moons audio reviews: Acoustic Imagery Atsah

"Here's a quote from Bruno Putzeys to get back on sonics: "It's always a dilemma whether an amp should be tuned for things like subjective bass control, sweet mids or not. One of the tricks a McIntosh does by design is to have a highish output impedance—because of the autoformer—which makes for a more liquid midrange sound and then to add a subjective sense of bass control by allowing a slight THD rise in the top end. When things like those are really tastefully balanced, such an amp can really make life hard on a 'straight wire' amp in a shootout. The signal actually comes out sounding nicer and more impressive than what went in. But on the other hand I think that to make the greatest number of people happy, one can't afford to give an amp a sound of its own because the number of new fans is probably immediately offset by the number of people who don't like that particular tuning. But it's tough to resist the occasional sonic touch-up. I can emulate the sound of pretty much any amp out there if I wanted. But so far I'm resisting. If ever I give in, it'll be obvious from the measurements and I hope someone calls me out on it. Anyhow that's why I decided I actually wanted the NC400 to have this unvarnished dead-pan delivery." His white paper explains the details on the Ncore technology."

I wonder how many happy Rogue owners realize that they have a class D?

Is this old rerun rehash stuff   Some of this reminds me I read it before No way?

I am in the IT field and I worked in computer retail for awhile in the 90's.  Sometimes I would have people come in and they were what I came to call "specced out" and suffered analysis paralysis.  I still remember this one guy, over 20 years ago.  He wanted the fastest hard drive.  We carried a certain brand and he would bring in spec sheets for other brands.  This one was .5ms faster in read time, this other one was 1ms faster in write time.  He wasn't going to see a difference, but the SPECS! 

I feel like a lot of people are like this about class D.  It CAN'T be as good as Class A because of dead time or switching, or whatever.  Just like the guys that pop up in threads (usually amps) and say it can't sound good because it didn't measure as well as this other amp.  

I have a little bit of everything: tube, SS, and class D.  My class D is a Peachtree Nova 220SE.  I like it a lot and over the last 18 months it has gotten more and more time in my main system.  I do have some vintage McIntosh stuff too, their first SS stuff and it sounds great as well.  After I recapped the 2505, it sounded amazing.  If I listen critically, there are definitely differences, but it is hard to say what is "best."

I have enjoyed reading this thread, but I choose to trust my ears.  I don't care about dead time or switching, or whatever else.  I want it to sound good.  If it sounds better because you have fixed those issues, then great!  I do think Class D is the future and it will only continue to get better.  But I am getting ready to build a single ended tube amp, so maybe I am crazy :)