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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
viber6
2,448 posts
 
klh007,
Can we hear about sound quality of the Mivera vs EVS 1200 amps, rather than concentrating on dynamics only?  For me, purity and clarity at moderate SPL is far more important than loud, lower quality sound.  If an amp has lesser clarity at moderate levels, I don't want to hear the mediocrity at loud levels.
ricevs
1,543 posts
 
Phil is waiting on balanced cables to really hear the EVS1200 amps (listening with rca and adapters now).  Will be a week or so before he chimes in.   The amp sounds so much better balanced I have decided that it is a balanced amp only and will be shipped with xlr inputs only from now on.
tweak1
3,645 posts
 
ric,

I am roughly 2 hours south of Phil

I have a couple different XLR cables I could send, but neither comes close to my WireWorld XLRs, and that could be the issue many are having; that being their ICs and speaker cables simply are not a good match for such revealing amps
ricevs
1,543 posts
 
Phil has some balanced cables but not ones he likes.  He is now a super fan of the Teo liquid cables.  But he only has them unbalanced  It is very hard for him to change cables (crammed space..using mirror, etc.) so he is waiting for his custom balanced Teo cables to arrive before changing cables again.
devilboy
1,176 posts
 
While I appreciate all of the class D supporters, as I also am a fan, this thread has turned into an, "I’ll say something positive about class D and wait for George to say something negative about class D", thread.

Having owned multiple class D amplifiers from multiple companies and multiple single-ended triode amps and multiple push-pull tube amplifiers and multiple class A amplifiers and multiple class A/B amplifiers over 23 years......... I will say that, just like women, I’ve loved and hated something about all of them.

In the end, I think audio and women share a striking resemblance. We all search for the perfect audio component or woman. Neither of them exist. It’s just a matter of how well we can tolerate the things that make them annoying.

I can tolerate my current class D amplifier to the point where it may have short cummings but in the end, it pleases me and makes me a happier audiophile.

This post may not convince any class D haters but who cares? In the end, if what you’re listening to makes you happy, then just listen and be happy.
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