Discussion of Class D Amps Application & Experiences

I see the class D crowd is alive and well, GOOD. I’ve have Ice units
Wyred 4 Sound SX1000 and Rs, Powerful but really lack the luster of the Hypex units. Though when coupled with a lively valve preamp it does help a lot.

The stock Hypex boards came with options that Ice boards didn’t have at the time without mods.

Hypex NC500/1200 and NC2k have buffer boards that come from the factory with standard op amps and voltage regulators,
Nord and VTV, BOTH offer bufferboard upgrades on their unit.
It is night and day with discrete class a op amps and discrete voltage regulators. The upgrades are 175-425.00 depending on the op amps you choose per monoblock unit.
It also gives you the option to customise your units with op amps rolls.
Sparco, Sonic Imagery, VTV, and a few more. Usually 150-350 for a pair of tricked out, op amps. If you already have the socketed boards

I had both with and without, the board upgrades. All of my units now have
the rev. C or D from Nord. The revision D from Nord or VTV (VTV have a gain select option) have dual sockets
(2 different footprints) for more versatility.

I only look at who made the boards, who made the case (do you like the design and case options, trigger, XLR and RCA, binding post) and do they have optional bufferboard. If they don’t, it’s simple, don’t buy them.

I opened 4-6 of the better known brands, all have either soldered in a different (not always better) opamp or bought buffer boards from, (LOL)
Nord or VTV.  Normally at 2 to 3 times the price, TO YOU..

A Hypex MB should be from 850.00-1500.00 depending on wattage, option on the bufferboards, and case options.

A shinny case alone can cost you 2000.00 more, and get a whole lot
LESS under the hood so to speak.

The boards are the same...Make sure you get the largest PS options too, it’s only a few buck and a few of the big names squeeze there, LOOK make sure..

Your budget will get you a long way into a great system, with valves included. A pre with valves or a combo of both. Tube front end sure sweetens the mix for sure. I love um’ ZERO floor noise.

Enjoy

So, based on your response would you say this a 10% improvement? 20%?

Hard to say in that regard! If properly engineered, its probably not that big a deal, as MOSFETs have gotten faster in the last few years since the GaNFETs were introduced. @arion  makes extremely good points in his post; this reflects my own experience. Some class D amps are extremely boring, some are bass shy (usually older units) and others sound extremely musical (mostly newer units).

Some class D amps are extremely boring, some are bass shy (usually older units) and others sound extremely musical (mostly newer units).

Of course the same could be said about any amp design type in general.

That’s why it’s best to not generalize. No two amps of any particular type are created equal. They all run the gamut.

Point is Class D CAN compete. That’s all.

Also I agree newer in general is better than older as is the case always with any newer and still more evolving technology. Also cost is NOT necessarily the best determining factor as usual. Even my tiny $75 Fosi Class D amp (about the size of a pack of cigarettes) with its tiny Texas Instruments Class D chip competes very well with anything else I have heard ever up for up to a few hundred dollars and will beat most vintage amps that sold for 2-5X more 40 years ago in a package 1/10th the size and the Bluetooth even works well enough for most if not the most critical 2-channel applications.

That’s how technology and progress works!

Can you believe we still use the same primitive disk-groove-based-like-riding-a-roller-coaster approach for records and playing them that was first invented well over 100 years ago? What’s up with that?

Try singing or playing a violin while riding a roller coaster sometime.

" That’s why it’s best to not generalize. No two amps of any particular type are created equal. They all run the gamut."

This is why I would like to hear from those who made the leap from class A, A/B to D to get their impressions about not only the sound but what sounds better or worse after the transition. Did they find equal or better performance for less money or were there trade-offs? I was also thinking along the lines of a tube pre but it seems hard to find one that offers a remote and no quirky aspects. (I researched the Conrad Johnson 17LS but didn't like the idea of the "click" volume control.) But I don't want to make this about pre-amps.....yet.

I wouldn't worry to much about the op amp the stock TI LM 4562 will measure right there with any discrete sparkos or sonic imagery. The newer iterations of Class D show better bench numbers but when you start getting into harmonic distortion numbers <-100 you're not going to be able to tell any difference anyway. Adding tubes to Class D amps seems self defeating to me you're adding distortion to an amp made for neutrality. The best at giving great detail without fatigue I have heard are amps with Purifi but Hypex is very close I haven't heard  ICE amps so they could be better though the few  measurements  I have seen on them aren't as good.