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

kijanki:

Yes I know SMPS’s are inherently regulated and can be very quiet but the crap noise (RF) kicked back is VERY VERY hard to stop and it fouls up (at least for me) everything I’ve ever heard them in when it comes to a high end system. A switching amp and SMPS are not the same thing. 

I have owned amps as stated before with similar ICE modules, one with linear, the other with the SMPS from the same manufacturer. Forget even running a signal through an amp with a SMPS, try this experiment if you have another amplifier with a linear supply. Power your system with the amplifier (linear or switching) that has a linear supply. Listen to a well recorded passage. Now take a device, amp or anything else with a SMPS and plug it in near your audio system. Now listen to the same passage. If you hear no difference, your experience is FAR different than mine.

It’s the type of noise that is so damaging with a SMPS. It’s akin to odd order harmonic distortion. Large amounts of even order harmonic distortion can be tolerated and sometimes even enjoyed, but odd order harmonics orders of magnitude lower can completely wreck a system. SMPS manufacturers and users of them like to tout the noise levels but what they always fail to discuss is that the noise in linear supplies is MUCH MUCH more benign that the noise from a SMPS. 

Manufacturers like SMSP’s because they are cheap, and don’t weigh anything, thus it’s cheaper to ship product. Some years ago, and I’ve mentioned this before, John Ulrich and I were discussing if he should stop using the big toroidal based power supply in the Spectron amplifier in favor of a SMPS. I successfully talked him out of that possibly disastrous path. What was his reason? Sound? No. Noise level reduction? No. The reasons were cost and primarily weight. He knew it would hurt the sound but he told me his shipping cost to the Far East were very high and that was the main driving force behind the desire.

Ed Meitner tried it with the Bidat as an option. It was horrid! They dropped the SMPS option almost as quickly as they came out with it and no, I don’t care for any of the new EMM Labs gear with the SMPS. Note that when Andreas left EMM and started Playback designs he went with a linear supply.

Again, if you don’t hear the detrimental effects I hear with a SMPS that’s good for you. 

If I plug my noise sniffer in near  SMPS that thing goes off like a Geiger counter near Chernobyl, not so much with linear.

Ok, enough, I didn’t mean to hijack this and I apologize to the OP, I was just trying to answer comments that came my way. 

We return you to your normal programming :)

Switching amp (class D) and SMPS  IS the same thing.  In fact class D was discovered when engineers tried to show how responsive SMPS was by modulating it with music.  I would say that it should be more difficult to build good class D amp than good SMPS since class D amp has to maintain linearity while SMPS only keeps voltage steady.

As for the noise in amplifier - it can be easily measured.  I currently listen to music coming from my Benchmark AHB2  power amp driven by Benchmark DAC3, both powered by SMPS, and it sounds wonderful. Both received the highest Stereophile ranking in "2019 Recommended Components".

Linear power supply has to have a lot of output capacitance to keep voltage steady under the load and to filter out 120Hz ripple.   These huge, inductive capacitors are in series with the speaker (circuit closes thru them) compromising sound.  

Here is interesting FAQ: 
https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/152143111-audio-myth-switching-power-supplies-are-noisy

It mentions AHB2 (powered by SMPS), perhaps the quietest power amp ever, with 132dB S/N.

I don't question your bad experience with SMPS understanding where it might be coming from, but keep your options open.  Jeff Rowland wouldn't compromise his business by completely abandoning linear supplies and making everything with SMPS if there is something inherently wrong with it.

How are the class D Amps made by down for professional applications? Any good for hifi? I’m interested in them because they’re cheap at $400 they’re not bad 

One more thing (as Columbo said): SMPS are not cheap. Cost of high quality SMPS has to include high cost of development. Rowland’s supplies deliver thousands of regulated watts operating at 1MHz (and components doing this are not cheap either). I couldn’t believe it is even possible, since most of switchers operate at 1/10 of this frequency. I can give you a simple reason (other than complexity) why many manufacturers decide to go with linear supplies. It is because there is still a lot of people thinking like you.  There was similar prejudice against all class D amps not so long ago.  Many believed they are good only for subwoofers.  I would advise the same as Eric did - don't look too much into technicals like class of operation or type of supplies, but listen instead.