Which Class D Amplifier? PS Audio, Ghent, Nord, Merrill or other???

Hi Everyone and Happy New years,

 

My audio distribution company has been A/B products for many years and a very good client of mine alerted me to very good sounding Class D last year because he said his big reference tube amplifiers had been outperformed by a set of used Class D amplifiers that he purchased as back up amplifiers. This client has great ears, a great system and lots of passion. I laughed because the last Class D amplification I heard, 5 years ago, was real average. But out of curiosity I contacted the Class D manufacture that my client liked and they agreed to sell me a set of amplifiers.

 

At the time my reference mono block amplifiers were $25K and I considered them very musical. After playing and direct A/B testing my reference Class A/B mono blocks over many years, I realized my reference amps did a lot of things really well but certainly, they were not perfect. I received the new Class D mono blocks about 2 weeks later and I had very low expectations after my first experience with the Class D amplification. All I can say is the new Class D amplifiers were not slightly better than my reference mono blocks, they were the next level and fully outperformed my reference amplifiers in every category. When this sort of thing happens, it really makes you question your audio intelligent. I was 100% sure my system was previously reproducing the original soundtracks correctly but with these new Class D amps there was another layer of music. Every song or track sounded new. The separation of the different singers and instruments were much more defined. Live instruments sounded more live and had more decay. Everything I heard at medium volumes could be heard at low volumes. There was more soul in my system but it was based on the amplifiers being more transparent and not injecting their own sound. This was very different than my previous experience with Class D amplification.

 

The main reason I have posted is because we now have 3 different Class D amplifiers that we are testing and another 3 different Class D amplifiers will be delivered to us in the next 3-6 weeks. I can already tell from the first 3 Class D amplifiers, that there are different levels of Class D. For the record when we test new products, we test on 5 very different systems. In this aspect you get 5 different honest opinions, 5 different listening rooms, 5 different types of systems, 5 different environments and lots of different types of music. It really can be fun.

 

At some point I would like to come back and give you our finding but best thing I can say right now is there are different levels of Class D, just like other types of amplifications and you need to decide what level Class D is best for you and your budget. I can say for sure that if you think Class D is not among the best sounding amplifiers in the world, than you have not done your homework or actually listened to current Class D.

 

PS; I have no invested interest in any Class D products as we do not carry any Class D products as of YET!

 

Bob at Worldwide Wholesales.

I don't know if the PS Audio Class D amps are the right solution for your system.  But I have their s300, at this point I am really happy.   PS Audio made me a great deal on my used amp and I had a trial period with the new S300.
Don't have any experience with Classe but There is  CA-D200 on ebay for $1.8K   claimed to be brand new in box.  Although located in Vestal, NY.  Classe still has the D200 listed as product on their website.  3 year old review. https://classeaudio.com/pdfs/Reviews/TAS%20CP-800%20CA-200%20Review%20Aug%202015.PDF

Unless you've actually had Monkey Plague, you really can't say much about it.

@wolf_garcia Whats YOUR contribution to this thread?

Current Class D has come a long way compared to a few years ago, who wouldn't want good amplification which is more efficient, takes up less space, runs cooler... and is possibly better value depending on which manufacturer you choose.

redrocket,

    wolf's thread contribution is requesting you should afflict yourself with Monkey Plaque prior to discussing so that your comments are well informed and relevant.

Please afflict yourself and report back to us.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation,
    Tim

Class D has come a long way compared to a few years ago

No it hasn’t!

Mark Levinson had a good expensive dig and tried to cure it’s evils, with the $50kusd !!! No.53 monoblocks, which had massive series output filters to rid the switching frequency from it’s outputs, but they them selves bought a different set of problem to the table compared to all the filters others manufacturers use.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/mark-levinson-no53-reference-monoblock-power-amplifier-specifica...
https://www.stereophile.com/images/1212levin.side.jpg
Again even with these, it’s the mid/tops that had ? on them, but as per usual with Class-D the bass was great.

" They resolved a remarkable amount of genuine detail but were harmonically threadbare, sounded somewhat hard and mechanical on top, and had a hazy overlay just below that. The bass was fast, lean, taut, and well damped—rhythm’n’pacing were among the No.53’s strongest suits. But overall, the nature of the sound induced listening fatigue. I rarely listened for more than an hour at a time, which for me is unusual."

The only "real" advancement of Class-D has been the introduction of the new GaN transistor which Technics introduced in to their SE-R1 and Merrill Audio is now doing with their Element 118, these promise to lower dead time and have a greater far reduction of the switching frequency with the filter without affecting the audio band.

Cheers George