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The Truth about Modern Class D

All my amps right now are Class D. ICEpower in the living room, and NAD D 3020 in the bedroom.

I’ve had several audiophiles come to my home and not one has ever said "Oh, that sounds like Class D."

Having said this, if I could afford them AND had the room, I’d be tempted to switch for a pair of Ayre monoblocks or Conrad Johnson Premiere 12s and very little else.

I’m not religious about Class D. They sound great for me, low power, easy to hide, but if a lot of cash and the need to upgrade ever hits me, I could be persuaded.

The point: Good modern Class D amps just sound like really good amplifiers, with the usual speaker/source matching issues.

You don’t have to go that route, but it’s time we shrugged off the myths and descriptions of Class D that come right out of the 1980’s.
erik_squires
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
I will say I was much less disappointed by the Vivace amps than I was the Kii speakers.
The Kii are like listening to music with surgical ears, sucks the life out of the music, they have no soul, or musicality or harmonic structure to whatever is being played.

Like anything that's been though a DSP room/xover/eq  with mutli amp class-D active speakers same deal.

Cheers George
nitrobob
261 posts
 
I have one on order (Video below). I’ll let you know. I’m coming from a Signature Series 6005 ATI with 300 watts all 5 channels driven ..Pretty impressive video

https://youtu.be/qQmRwNhuK14
tweak1
3,679 posts
 
Thanks nitro

Nice to get validation

These are the same modules that Ric uses in his/my EVS 1200, but Ric also mods the supporting parts
nitrobob
261 posts
 

Tweak

According to that video, Legacy only modified,or beefed up the heat sink areas and added a fan.

tweak1
3,679 posts
 
Still, it points how how good IcePower 1200as2 modules are even with minimal tweaking.

Ric Schultz has a long standing reputation about high performance tweaking

Anyone is welcome to come hear, including GFi

Just know I live in Ft Lauderdale, FL
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