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

In reference to gfis incessant GaN, GaN or no class D rants, I suppose IF one drove a regularly aspirated high performance vehicle, then hopped on the same vehicle/engine but upgraded with twin turbos or a blower. The reat news is that eventually the tech trickles down.

HOWEVER, for many of us, the many benefits and sound quality of recent class D offerings has/have already put grins on out faces.. Case in point and speaking for myself only, my Audio Alchemy DPA-1 is immensely satisfying compared to my previous W4S and, Emerald Physics 100.2SEs, but my room demands more spls just to flesh out the music, not to blow out my eardrums

NOW, speaking to the current non-GaN offerings: if RICs pixy dust takes the IcePower to a much higher level for a mere $2200 (can’t believe Im saying "a mere $2200), but it is relative, then we can wait for GaN to come down to our budgetary level, Alas, who will buy or used D should they stumble across Gfis negative comments: GaN or bust? .

The only reason why I still have my DPA-1 is no one was willing to pay $850 for a product that MSRPed at $1995 3 short years ago, and got rave reviews in TAS and elsewhere. My PS Audio M700s @ 350wpa sold fast, but to my ears were no better, though double the power did a much better job of fleshing out my room, and likely do not compare to RICs EVS 1200 with pixy dust., but even the M700s were plugged into my 1800 CorePower, and since then, I have upgraded ICs, digital and speaker cables, so...

It’s important to listen to different class D amps before commenting. As I have said before just because a design uses GaN it doesn’t make it automatically superior to other class D designs. Implementation is key, manufacturers can use the same class D module and the SQ will be quite different depending on how they are implemented. This will also determine the price of the product. From tests disclosed to us from a very reliable source, the current GaN amps are not currently THE best sounding class D amps, although still very good. They also tend to be much more expensive. Perhaps this might change in the future.

At least I’ve given the manufacturers technical reasons behind it, you’ve given zip technical info on why the old technology is as good as GaN Technology.

You are the one who claims there are deficiencies which would be fixed. My point is and always has been:

1. A measurement is not by itself audible
2. I have encountered none of the audible claims you ascribe to Class D in general
3. There’s no consensus on any of the technical items addressed in GaN amps being audible.

You are basing everything on literature, and very little on actual hearing and listening. Yes, I went from an old ICEpower module to Luxman, but hey, I would have gone from a Parasound A21 to a Luxman too. The idea that this proves all Class D are inferior or have a signature to all linear or GaN is just not in evidence. It's in your fandom.

Keep plugging away Eric, you live with a technology that has been flawed since it’s inception.
GaN technology will finally get rid of these flaws of dead time and switching noise.

No one here knew what GaN was till I posted up about it’s development at EPC years ago, before the Technics SE-R1 was released, I said then it was coming for Class-D and it would finally take Class-D up into the hiend for being for midfi and sub use.
  
I suggest all to wait till this comes about and enjoy your linear amps till then, otherwise you’ll buy into a Class-D technology that will be very hard to sell, once GaN has taken hold in Class-D in an affordable way.
Cheers George

Uh, George, GaN amps still need deadtime. It *reduces* the need but does not eliminate it.
Deadtime is not a major source of distortion in a class D amp; you can double the amount used above the amount EPC recommends and not be able to hear it. OTOH the accuracy of the encoding scheme plays a much larger role in how much distortion is made.

The reason Technics is switching so fast is not because they don't need any deadtime. Its been done to reduce the residual waveform to a very low level and open up the bandwidth of the amp.

BTW 'switching noise' really isn't a thing unless the switching frequency is really low, in which case the amp won't be suitable for audio. IOW you're simply not able to hear it or any knock-on effects- plain and simple.