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
Can someone please list the Top to Midrange Class-D options on the market at present and the relative MSRP?  The Merrill 118 is fantastic but tooooo expensive.  Give me some options <$10k and I'm not one that believes something is better just because it costs more so if you know of an outstanding $700 amp, bring it on.

The Amp will be used in a bi-amp system handling the frequencies below 200Hz so a high damping factor may be a positive... or not.

I'm interested in the views of this group.
a bit bright and somehow dry, lacking warmness

That description applies to every class D amp I’ve heard, even those with tubes on the input stage.

As for ecological concerns, at low power levels, where most amps operate during most listening, even class D amps are inefficient.
darkstar on his ATI amp:" The sound is high end. Huge stage, precise images and natural timbre. The sound reflects the front end. Changes in upstream equipment are easily audible.
ATI uses a large linear power supply. No SMPS power. I listen about 12 hours a day. Every day. Jazz and classical primarily. No listener fatigue here."

     As an owner and user of D-Sonic M3-600-M monoblocks, I consider this a very good description of what to expect from the inclusion of a high quality class D amp or amps in one's system.
     I haven't yet had the opportunity to audition an ATI amp in my or any system, but darkstar's description of the ATI's performance characteristics closely resemble the performance characteristics that I've perceived in my amps over the past 4 plus years in my system on both 2-ch music and HT playback.
     I also read this Sound & Vision review on a couple of ATI amps that further supports their high quality:

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/ati-at527nc-and-at524nc-amplifiers-review
     I 've read that many of the ATI amps utilize the newer and highly respected Hypex NCore500 class D power modules.  These are likely an important contributor to the high quality sound performance.
     These ATI amps also utilize conventional toiroidal transformers as part of their power supplies.  It seems like some believe the use of conventional toroidal transformers in the power supplies of class D amps results in superior performance when compared to the newer switch mode power supplies (SMPS) used in other high quality class D amps.  All 3 of the class D amps I use in my system happen to have power supplies using conventional toroidal transformers but I've listened to many other class D amps utilizing SMPS.  In my listening experiences, I've never perceived any noticeable sound quality advantage of either power supply types.  
     Overall, I consider the ATI amps a very good high quality class D amp option that I also consider  a bit overpriced.

Tim
As for ecological concerns, at low power levels, where most amps operate during most listening, even class D amps are inefficient.
This statement is incorrect. The efficiency of a class D amp is such that at higher power levels its power draw is similar to conventional amps. But at lower power levels a class D amp draws considerably less power!
Tim, did you audition Cherry amps (Gold Cherry, Megaschino etc) orNuPrime class D amps? Do you suggest that ATI class D amps could be better?  Thanks