I went from Class D to Luxman A/AB - And most of what you think is wrong

I recently auditioned Bel Canto Ref600 M's for a good bit of time in my system and was super impressed. These are wonderful amps that compete with any amps under $10K regardless of topology;

My speakers are Dynaudio Contour 60's; Amps in my rig over the past few months: Pass XA30.5, Pass X150.8, Pass X250.8, Luxman 509X;
All have various strengths and such and one does not necessarily "blow away" the other; The Bel Cantos gave me the sense of a wide open window into the performance and seemed to be very complete. I remarked many times about how beautiful and real voices sounded. Excellent grip of the (4 ohm nominal / medium sensitivity) Dyn woofers as well; If they had any weaknesses I did not hear it. Incredible value.

Great post and very interesting about the on-time;
I did notice the amps sounded most excellent after about 30 minutes of on time. I did not hear any further changes after that.


 
  

    Great post snapsc!

        Your description of the performance characteristics of your Digital Amplifier Company 2Cherry class D amp to what I experience with my D-Sonic M3-600-M mono-block class D amps are remarkably similar.
        I also found your discussion on the psychology of change very interesting and relevant. Having been a manager of large groups of individuals in a constantly changing and fast paced environment, I'm well aware that individuals have varied, wide ranging and evolving reactions to change. Typical reactions progress from skepticism and firm resistance to reluctance and mild resistance to acceptance and little resistance to education, experience and complete understanding leading to no resistance and the eventual embracing of change. 
     Individuals will vary in their initial reaction to change which will dictate their beginning stage in this evolutionary progression of stages of human reactions to change. The most successful individuals learn to expect constant change, look for opportunities where change would be beneficial, seek to completely understand the change and eventually embrace constant change.
     I should point out that these stages of individuals' reactions to change I described above are just my thoughts and recollections spurred on by snapsc's mentioning of the psychology of people on change.  I've never read any of Daniel Kahneman's writings, or any writings, on the psychology of change. My thoughts are based on the behavior of employees who worked with me confronted with change and are a summary of what I learned.    
      The presence of good quality class D solid state amps, as an additional option to the more traditional tube and solid state amps, was a change to home audio that I believe follows the normal variance pattern individuals demonstrate in their reactions to change in general.
       My first experience with a class D amp in my system was about 12 yrs ago when I bought a ClassD Audio SDS-440-CS stereo amp (220w/8 ohm 440w/4 ohm,15lbs with a linear power supply and Texas Instruments class D modules) for about $500 to drive my pair of Magnepan 2.7QR speakers (4 ohm and 86dB efficient). It was about 1/5th the size and weight of my prior amp, a class AB Aragon 4004 MKII, but still delivered a bit more power (440w/ch at 4ohm vs 400w/ch).    
    I paired a VTL 2.5L preamp with a set of 4 NOS Mullard tubes with this new class D amp and was amazed by the performance even straight out of the box with zero run-in time. Of course, it just sounded better with run-in time over a few weeks.  The outstanding characteristics I quickly noticed were the extremely low background noise level, the high degree of detail and the best bass response I had ever heard up to this point from the 625 square inch dipole bass sections in each of my 3-way Magnepan speakers. Taut, detailed, natural and impactful bass that I had no idea these speakers were even capable of producing.  I think this must have been a result of the extremely high damping factor (>1,000) that this little class D amp possessed. 
     The midrange and treble response was also very good, smooth, detailed, natural, with no hint of shrillness or harshness and with a well defined, solid and stable soundstage  illusion projected.  I realize that my tube preamp likely assisted in this very good performance but the combination of the VTL preamp with the class D amp sounded at least equal in sound quality to the combination of the same preamp with my previous class AB Aragon amp.
     Given my great first experience with a class D amp, I was surprised to discover that some posters on Agon at the time and since have claimed to hear deficiencies in the sound of class D amps that confused me since I was completely unable to detect any of their claimed deficiencies such as 'harshness and shrillness in the treble', 'a lack of high frequency extension and air' and 'the carrier frequency being too low and causing sonic anomalies in the audible range'.
     12 yrs later and owning several additional class D amps and listening to many more, I am still unable to detect any of the continually claimed deficiencies in class D amps.  I've come to the conclusion that  either these are false claims or that some individuals, for some currently unknown reasons,  perceive deficiencies in the performance of class D amps that others do not perceive.  An oversensitivity or allergy to class D sound.?  I'm just trying to figure out this dichotomy between those that love class D and those who don't like it at all.


Tim

I just purchased the Mola Mola Kaluga and Makuna after having a beautiful tube amp.  Question....do you leave the Mola Mola amps on 24/7?  Or for that matter any Class D amps? 

willgolf, My class D amp was designed to be on all the time (no power switch).  I kept it on with surge protector, but unplugged it when on vacation or during thunderstorms.  You could call Mola Mola to be sure.

Bel Canto ref1000m manual indicates to leave the amps on and I do except if away for more than a couple days.  

I also leave my Bel Canto c5i digital integrated amp  on all the time similarly.