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

I’m looking for a new amp & want Class D.

I’ve seen various brands mentioned, such as PS Audio, Ghent, Nord, Merrel to name a few, but I’ve not heard any of them.

Which company is producing the best sounding Class D?
Which models should I be looking to demo?


Thanks



singintheblues
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
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
bigkidz
3,387 posts
 
@georgehifi 

I definitely don’t think there’s a need to wait for GaN semiconductor technology to ’trickle down’. As I believe you’ve already discovered, good class D performs exceptionally well.
But it still does not compete with the best linear amps.

I am also in this camp.  As a builder of audio components my partner and I have discussed making Class-D amps or anything similar.  So far, we cannot come up with anything that is better.  We recently built a pure class A power amp about 30wpc and it was killer.  Cost me about $600 to build one.

I recently heard the NuFocre (not the newest model) but an upgraded (with 5 watt power supply) and it was supposed to be really good.  But in direct comparison in my system it lasted less than a minute.  Just did nothing special and was not very musical.  Just my two cents.

If I was going to by a Class-D amp I would buy one that was reliable, could be serviced is needed and spend the least amount of money on it.  But that's just me, I'm cheap!

Happy Listening.  
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 

eHello George, I have heard the ML NO.53 a couple of times, and... I agree 200% with the reviewer, for all parameters he mentioned.... To say that I did not like it would be an understatement.


If all other class D amps sounded like No.53, I would have never bothered adopting this class of operation in my system.... Thankfully, No.53 is an outlyer. THere are of course other class D amps that I have not cared for, but No.53 takes the cake, particularly at its nose-bleeding price point.


But George, haven't you learned yet that one cannot perform valid induction steps from a couple of anomalous samples?


As I said so many times.... Get out of the house, lots of nice stuff out there... Besides, who knows, you might even fall in love with No.53 *Grins!*


G.


 

migueca's avatar
migueca
112 posts
 
For a very honest product, within the UK, try Temple Audio from around Manchester. 
I did a similar research one year ago and considering my limited budget I ordered a pair of their monoblocks. I'm very satisfied and don't feel the hitch to change. Just took me a while finding a nice matching preamp...
And they make everything in house, from the amplification modules (proprietary, not ICE or Ncore or whatever) to the casing. They even let you personalise the cases - choosing the metal finishing and engravings. 
And one more thing, a very important one: the customer care is outstanding! Talk to John and he will answer all your questions. 
http://www.templeaudio.net/index.html
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
 I have heard the ML NO.53 a couple of times,
So have I, and the problems in the upper mids and tops while a bit different are there, they are also in similar way in all other class-D's I've heard.

I have not heard the Technics SE-R1 nor the Merrill Element 118, but the mids/highs areas of concern with Class-D that many hear, seem to be the areas they say they have addressed, which makes me very hopeful they are leading the way, to make Class-D hiend.  
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