Ohm Walsh Micro Talls: who's actually heard 'em?

Mamboni is a classical musician and OHm Walsh affectionado that at last report was very happy with Wyred4Sound Class D. It was his experience that helped peak my Class D amp/OHM interest. I opted to splurge on the BCs rather than "cur corners" with Wyred. They both use similar Ice Power amp modules and custom input stages with higher input impedance for better match to tube pre-amps. BC adds a custom power supply board. Power supplies are traditionally the weak link in many stock Class D amp modules. Different vendors do their own thing there to achieve performance improvements.

Bond, I always found your clipping issue as described somewhat puzzling, but use with power filters as the culprit for clipping for reasons mentioned above does not surprise me. Glad its resolved.

Probably worth saying that if there is still an "achilles heel" to any extent with Class D amps, the top end is probably where it will be. Similar to what is often discussed with digital versus analog, but not exactly the same in a technical sense.

I have been most happy with the top end of my BC amps, but I would speculate that it is the one area that might compare less favorably to other amp types in more cases at present. I think the technology is fairly mature at this point but still has room to improve and will. That drives my interest in newer designs when they come out.

My ears were much more sensitive to higher audible frequencies when they were much younger as well. That is also undoubtedly a factor. Not all ears are equally sensitive in the same ways. Yet another reason why individual mileage will always vary.

Ncore-12 may be a good solution. I have not heard one and can't afford $12k anyway.

Coot, while I do admit that I am extremely fond of Ncore technology, and a well broken-in Ncore NC1200 amp seems completely incapable of producing nasty jaggies in multi-part high strings, class D amplifiers tend to take a long time to break in.... In my experience 1,000 hours for Ncore-based Merrill Veritas, 600 hours for Icepower1000ASP-Based Bel Canto REF1000M, and 1200 hours for Rowland M312 based on the same ICEpower 100ASP module. Before a class D power amp is well stabilized, it has the uncharming propensity of going into periodic funks.... shrill one moment, saggy and lifeless another moment. The 100 hours mark seems to be just the beginning of the typical class D wild ride.

I have no experience with D-Sonics amps, but I suspect that around the 100 hours mark they may be still very young and raw kittens, and may be deserving of some audiophilic patience.

Regards, Guido

That was a very interesting post, Guido. I was also thinking D-Sonic maybe needed more break-in time by just leaving it on 24/7. You have restored my faith in class D amps. Thanks.