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

Hi everyone,

As most of you know, I’m a fan of Class D. I have lived with ICEPower 250AS based amps for a couple of years. Before that I lived with a pair of Parasound A21s (for HT) and now I’m listening to a Luxman 507ux.


I have some thoughts after long term listening:
  • The tropes of Class D having particularly bad, noticeable Class D qualities are all wrong and have been for years.
  • No one has ever heard my Class D amps and gone: "Oh, wow, Class D, that’s why I hate it."
  • The Luxman is a better amp than my ICEPower modules, which are already pretty old.

I found the Class D a touch warm, powerful, noise free. Blindfolded I cannot tell them apart from the Parasound A21s which are completely linear, and run a touch warm due to high Class A operation, and VERY similar in power output.


The Luxman 507 beats them both, but no amp stands out as nasty sounding or lacking in the ability to be musical and involving.


What the Luxman 507 does better is in the midrange and ends of the spectrum. It is less dark, sweeter in the midrange, and sounds more powerful, almost "louder" in the sense of having more treble and bass. It IS a better amplifier than I had before. Imaging is about the same.


There was one significant operational difference, which others have confirmed. I don't know why this is true, but the Class D amps needed 2-4 days to warm up. The Luxman needs no time at all. I have no rational, engineering explanation for this. After leaving the ICEPower amps off for a weekend, they sounded pretty low fi. Took 2 days to come back. I can come home after work and turn the Luxman on and it sounds great from the first moment.


Please keep this in mind when evaluating.


Best,

E
erik_squires
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
same tired and irrelevant tropes
Only in your own mind Erik, as you continue to start Class-D posts to get others validate your Class-D views and purchases because you can't yourself.  
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 

Erik instead of burying your head in the sand about the problems that Class-D has had since it’s inception, with switching frequencies+filters, embrace instead the new GaN technology, that when used correctly as Technics has done with the SE-R1 can address those problems forever. At the expense of a little bit of heatsinking.

This then will put Class-D up with the best linear amps into the very hiend, instead of half of the audiophile not accepting it at all, because they hear things in the mids and highs you obviously can’t.
tweak1
3,645 posts
 
George

I too am a fan of certain class D amps, with plenty I haven’t heard. Ive owned quite few SS amps from tube/ss hybrids to AB to the class A Kinergetics KBA 75, which to this day was the best amp Ive heard here, My system then consisted of Genesis 5s made especially for Harry Pearson. I don’t recall what the front end was. The KBA was the only amp of the many I tried that grabbed ahold of the Gen5 mid/tweeters and made them perform to their potential. Sadly, one afternoon I was comparing power cords, and apparently didn’t let the caps drain. When I plugged the new one in sparks flew and it was toast. KBA was out of business then so... I don’t recall the other amps I tried, but none made the grade. The guy I bought them from had BAT monos, but I never heard his system.

The point Im trying to make is all types of amps have issues and I could hear the issues with the many amps Ive owned. Happily, I have never been exposed to what the frequency band distortions sound like that some here cannot get past. Perhaps if someone were to take me into their lab and play the distortions for me, I might change my mind, but thankfully, I don’t hear it, and thankfully I can buy a Rad EVS 1200, 600w, dual mono with highly tweaked boards and chassis, among other thoughtful tweaks for $2200. Ric Schultz, the brains behind this amp, mentioned that the new Van Alstine DVA 4/2 stereo amp sounded really good, and could be tweaked to sound even better. Probably a great bargain at $3699, but comparing watts to watts his V 600w monos start at $2499 per. Anyway I already pushed my budget to $2200, so Im just glad I don’t hear what annoys some of you












d2girls's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
d2girls
1,029 posts
 
mark levinson class d!
erik_squires OP
16,021 posts
 
Erik instead of burying your head in the sand about the problems that Class-D has had since it’s inception, with switching frequencies+filters,

The man who simply refuses to listen to any view but his own would like to claim I buried my head in the sand.

No, George, my original post was all about a progressive view point towards Class D amplifiers. Your view is from the 1980s and has moved nowhere. As we’ve discussed with embarrassing regularity, your claims of the superiority of Class A/B amplifiers over Class D based on measurements alone has no justification in terms of audibility of any amplifier made in the 21st century.

My claims are from personal experience, along with those of other audiophiles who have visited. You can complain about the sound quality of specific amps, but the trope is decrepit.  I am however astonished at your powers of necromancy in bringing them up over and over again despite so many positive reviews from Audiogoners to the contrary.
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