The NAD M33 will cancel your complaints about Class D

i have heard excellent class D amplification. stunning with the right music and recordings.
for me it has one fatal flaw, an inability to handle compressed music and music with intentional distortion, e.g. arcade fire, sonic youth, flaming lips, spoon, tame impala.
there is an additive distortion effect to this music that makes it intolerable to my ears. tube amps handle it ok, class ab a little worse but class d not happening.

This is the heart of the problem with Class D, in a nutshell.

100% of the music, for the human ear, lies in the proper placement and expression of micro detail, in time, in living breathing relation to all bits of said micro detail, in time and levels (micro and macro levels in micro and macro time..)(the ear/brain is the world's finest FFT system and varies in quality and effectiveness from person to person)

This is the part that Digital and Class D get wrong. It’s intrinsic to the technology of both. Core.

Their ’residual’ distortions are right in the heart of how the human ear/brain functions and listens. 100% of how the ear/brain works, is squarely in the sights of how and where in the signal -that these technologies distort.

Therefore, to the discerning ear and mind, both are a failure.

Listenable? Sure. For some of us, if we grunt and ignore our natural tendencies in how we listen.

Best? Very much a no.

I’ve said this, now, maybe a good few dozen times on this forum and human ignorance and projections says I’ll probably have to say it forever. That it will outlast me and wear me down. Where this norm of the human condition really will manage to eventually...cut down trees with herrings. Forever. Until humans evolve into something else with a different set of cognitive problems. Plenty more where that came from...

Therefore, to the discerning ear and mind, both are a failure.

well, there you have it

calling junk pros now...

Hey..., they may please some, but not others.

eg, define 'discerning ear'. What does that mean as a word paring - in a high end audio context?

The complexity of the simple statement, when unraveled, is, well, maybe a hair more explicit and detailed.

Declarations of perfection, if they occur.. will be shot down with a proper extreme prejudice. At least that’s what I may chose to do in the given moment. Tomorrow I may not care and today I might care.

Same for you, I might expect.

I might come to your abode, grift you out of the amp.. while posed as a junk collector... and then sell it to the folks who want it. Aafter listening to it, of course. After I listened to it, my opinion certainly would not be definitive. That would be...an unwell projection.

I have 4 different Class D amps running in my house. They all sound dam good. Not to mention good value. As good as most anything in each’s class if not better. I have 4 because I started with one and went from there and have not looked back since. If Class D had not worked out for me I was ready to explore tube amps. Didn’t happen....no need. Class D is like the best of SS and tube amplification in one. It’s different. So no reason to expect everyone to love it just like everything else. But personally I think it is the way to go these days and will be even more so as time goes on. I have heard the Anthem but not the NAD. It sounded very good driving Klipsch Heresy IV, the best Heresy sound I have heard to date. Lots of technology in these new amps beyond merely Class D amplification. It’s a whole new world. Some will go there others not. Count me in! I will need another new amp sometime I expect.

I also find the NAD Class D I have a little lean, however, as I said, this is a tonal issue.  I find the ICEpower the opposite.

I have _exactly_ the same problem with A and A/B amps today.

I'm not saying you should not criticize Class D amps, but rather, criticize them for how they behave today, in the 21st century, not how they did in the 1980s.

Best,

Erik