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Time to buy a class D amp?


Will some new class D amplifiers outperforming the current ones appear soon

(the newest ones i know were released a  few years ago)?

Class D amps attract me as I consider them the most ecological ones with obvious non-auditionable benefits.

I have no doubts that they posses the maximum ratio performance/sound quality among the amplifiers of all classes.

At the same time, the sound quality the class D amplifiers that I have auditioned produce, although is quite good,

but not yet ideal (for my taste).


I use PS Audio Stellar S300 amp with PS audio Gain Cell pre/DAC with Thiel CS 3.6 speakers in one of my systems.

The sound is ok (deep bass, clear soundstage) but not perfect (a bit bright and somehow dry, lacking warmness which might be more or less ok for rock but not for jazz music).

I wonder if there are softer sounding class D amps with the same or better details and resolution. Considering two reasonable (as to the budget) choices for test, Red Dragon S500 and Digital Audio Company's

Cherry  2 (or Maraschino monoblocks), did anybody compare these two?



128x128niodari
noble100's avatar
noble100
2,419 posts
 
clearthink,

     Anyone stating class D is "noisy as hell" very obviously doesn't know what the heck they're talking about.  It's simply not scientifically or anecdotally true.   It's not my opinion that class D is quiet as hell, it is a scientific fact. I stand by my statement that anyone claiming class D is "noisy as hell" has either never auditioned it or purposefully lying.  Have you ever heard class D?  If so, would you describe it as noisy as hell?


Elizabeth,

      Class AB Brystons are decent amps for Magnepans but, if you ever want to try out amps that have less distortion, much better bass, superior dynamics, are much quieter (much higher Signal to Noise ratio), a third of the size and weight as well as consume a fraction of the electricity, check out a good class D or two. 

Tim
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,313 posts
 
Whenever I turn on my Class D amp, my dog goes running out of the room...
big_greg
6,567 posts
 
The comment about noise is a puzzler.  "Noisy" in what way?  I'm using a 460 watt per channel amp with 102 dB sensitive speakers and a tube preamp.  If I stick my ear literally right next to the tweeter I can hear the faintest amount of hiss.
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Whenever I turn on my Class D amp, my dog goes running out of the
room...

That's the residual switching noise coming out of your tweeters freaking your dog out, because the output filter can,t get rid of it totally without effecting the audio band even more than it does with phase shift.
If the switching frequency were higher then the filter can be higher, and filter out all of the switching noise without any phase shift down into the audio band.

Technics does this with GaN Technology in their $$$$$$K SE-R1 Class-D power amp with a switching frequency at 1.5mhz instead of what everyone else uses at 600khz

Cheers George
mr_m
1,900 posts
 
Clearthink's attitude towards, indifference to, or hate of, all things class D seems obvious.  :-P
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