The Truth about Modern Class D

Too funny George
You love to dish it out but cannot handle a little bit of criticism yourself.
Says more than my original post ever could tbh

you have a great day now .

I agree Class D is just fine. Competes just as fine as any other design tube or SS. Class A is also very fine but problem there is size weight and overall cost of ownership especially if many watts called for. Class D these days easily competes and offers unique benefit in these areas that matter practically to many.

George talks like no Class D amp can compete with any other kind whereas we all know quality and cost varies greatly with all kinds of amps.

Now if one wants to compare a specific class D amp to some other then there may be something worth talking about.

That's the truth.  ☝️

I am quite new to the audiophile world but I am a professional musician so I have quite a bit of experience with music and how I think it should sound.  In my opinion, there will always be something artificial about electronic equipment trying to capture what the human ear (and brain) experiences in a live situation.  Let's not forget the pro audio side of the equation i.e. what kind of mics, pre-amps, mixing board were used, mic placement and then, what kind of limiting and compression.  And then on the hi-fi side, you go through a bunch of equipment again, trying at the very best, to reproduce what has been recorded.  I'm seeing some comments about the lack of naturalness of class D but too me, everything in audio reproduction is somewhat unnatural.  That's not to say it doesn't sound good, it's just not as sophisticated as what we experience when we listen to music live.  I recently was at a hi-fi store and listened to 2 comparably priced and well-regarded integrated amps.  One was class A/B and the other class D.  Both sounded really good but emphasized different elements of the musical experience.  The class D sounded more detailed and clearer but leaner and some would say clinical.  The class A/B sounded more liquid and richer but some would say less detailed and congested.  I think it just comes down to personal preference.  Recordings are never going to sound like the "real thing"so you might as well just go for the sound that is pleasing to you.  Maybe with my modest budget I have as yet to hear a system that captures everything that a live performance offers but I have a feeling that its a very very hard thing to do.  BTW I preferred the class D amp but I thought they were both very very nice

Adam,

Adam I agree with the "somewhat artificial" assessment in many cases.

If you ever get a chance to hear a pair of OHM Walsh speakers I wonder if they might shift your opinion somewhat. Especially off a good Class D amp and maybe a well-applied tube or two upstream if desired.

The Ohms are a radically different design that excels in coherence and reverberant field which effectively bridges the gap between sounding hifi versus more lifelike.

Not to steer this off topic, but no system can produce a convincing life-like sound, partly because the recording equipment cannot capture it. This is most evident in note decay. Musicians will know what I'm referring to. Anyone who thinks their system can recreate a live performance should go buy a cheap guitar, play a few chords and compare that to their very best acoustic recordings.