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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
erik_squires OP
16,021 posts
 
I won't be responsible for George's lack of self control. If I can't say "I like Class D" without him abandoning his family, friends and life to respond with hundreds of pages of random facts about Class D it is not my fault.
devilboy
1,176 posts
 
+1 erik
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
This is what I mean about George doing very little listening, and therefore making it hard for his arguments to be persuasive.
You and your mate tweak give/present nothing technical in your posts to why using old present Class-D technology is as good as the new GaN technology, all you guys can do is attack on a personal level.

If I can’t say "I like Class D"
An I’m not saying you don’t like your Class-D, as your many threads you have started on it state.
Just look at what the new GaN technology will bring to it, and fix it’s achilles heel it has in it at present, that you obviously can’t hear but others do, "dead time" and "switching noise frequency"
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
ricevs
I have no doubt GaNs will be used in state of the art products some day There will be State of the Art GaN and other super class D amps in the future....the future looks bright.

+1.
I finally agree with something you’ve said, could it be you've seen the 
devilboy
1,176 posts
 
There are people who say they hate class D. I'll bet that if you sat them down and played some music and told them that the amp they're listening to was a $10,000 class A or class A/B amp, they would say it's fantastic.
I believe that a lot of the negative criticism that comes with class D amps is from people who already have a preconceived opinion of class D which convinces their brain that it's not good before they even give it a chance.
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