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
Are you building your own amp using that module?  If not what specific amp using that module are you talking about?   Sorry if I missed that.


mapman +1

golfnutz, Your opinion s just that.

I have owned quite a few class Ds, including my current (npi) Audio Alchemy DPA-1 (125 wpc) which sounds terrific (see Mar/April 2016 TAS Review) and PS Audio M700s, which sounded excellent and provided a lot more spl in my big room

The only reason I still have the DPA 1 is that no one wanted it when I put it up for sale, but the M700s went qucik, as they should have.

The EVS comes with 30 day money back, so if my experience is similar to yours, it will be returned before I take full ownership 

@mapman 

I had the Mivera amps.

I don't know much about the Bel Canto Ref 1000, but I did see comments on Stereophile that said this:

"This latest version of Bel Canto's e.One Ref1000M monoblock offers very high power from its diminutive chassis. It does work best with higher-impedance loudspeakers, however, and at lower frequencies. Fortunately, music rarely includes enough high top-octave energy to reveal the amplifier's unhappiness in this region.—John Atkinson"

I believe this is what Georgehifi is also referring to in his comments.

All amps work better with higher-impedance loudspeakers.

WHere they differ is how well they work into more difficult loads.

The ref1000ms do fine with most speakers. None I have tried dip down to 2ohm that I know of, but then again I would tend to avoid any speakers that do.

"Fortunately, music rarely includes enough high top-octave energy to reveal the amplifier’s unhappiness in this region."

I have no gripes about the top ends of any of my Class D amps playing the great variety of music and recordings that I listen to, but clearly at least on paper that is where ongoing improvements in the technology will probably  best make it’s case. In that sense I agree with George.


@tweak1 

You must have mentioned the EVS amp 100 times in all your posts so far. For someone with 40+ years experience, you sure have a lot to say about something that you never heard. You accuse others of being trolls, and basically that's all I see that you are.