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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
16,375 posts
 
For the record: I've heard plenty of audiophile marketed, linear solid state amps which were pretty sensitive to speaker and cable impedance.

As my original thesis points out, we need to think about Class D amps like amps, with all their possible blemishes, instead of trying to assert an amp-class hierarchy which no longer fits current products.




Best,
E
jetter
3,052 posts
 
Actually, Erik just said what I meant to before having a couple of pops last night. Class D is just another class. It may be better in some applications, the same, or worse.

My point was that there appears to be twice as many class D promoters talking about class D "haters" than there are class D "haters".

Grasshopper, be like your amp, and chill.
klh007
621 posts
 
My friend Phil in FL has a Mivera 1200AS and the first pair in the wild of the EVS modded 1200AS amps.  He has been driving a difficult and low sensitive load of Thiels that shut down a big Bryston, he is surprised how effectively the Mivera drives the Thiels to loud levels and barely gets warm, I think he is pumping a lot of current into them. He likes the EVS modded ones even more.
ricevs
1,543 posts
 
Yes, the stock IceEdge modules are compressed sounding (dynamics, soundstage, etc.). Not the modded mono boards I sell. I do 17 proprietary mods to the boards (in addition to the super wire, Furutech IEC and XLR jacks, binding post bypass system, damped chassis, mounting the boards on multilayer copper/aluminum plating, etc.) You will read here comparisons with the stock module and other amps soon.

The problem with dynamics has nothing to do with class D. It has to do with execution. By the way, dynamics are never what George has complained about.
golfnutz
231 posts
 

@klh007 

Yes, I've read Phil's comments on the various forums - nice guy!

And I agree with everything you've mentioned in your post.

The Watt/Puppies go down to 1.8ohms vs 2.4 - 2.8 ohm for the Thiels. So they are a bit harder to drive.

I'm not sure comparing the 1200as2 to a Bryston amp that would shut down is saying much.

At first I thought my system sounded pretty good with the 1200as2 amp, but I had someone else come and listen and he convinced me there was a lot missing. I went to his place and realized what a decent system should sound like.


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