High end Class D amps?

blurion:" Great discussion and I've learned a lot from this---some of you have commented that class Ds is good for better bass. Why is that? You wouldn't get good bass from class A or AB?"

Hello bluorion,

     I suggest you read my last post on this thread from earlier today that covers this subject a bit.
     In general, solid-state (ss) amps reproduce deep bass frequencies better than tube amps.  A good indicator of an amp's bass reproducing ability is its Damping Factor, which basically measures its ability to control, or start and stop, the bass driver.  The higher the number the better its control.  Class D amps usually have much higher damping factors than the other amp types; class D amps can be rated in the low thousands, class A and AB are typically rated in the low hundreds and tube amps even lower.
     Bass frequencies also require more current or power to reproduce than higher frequencies because the bass drivers typically have more
mass and, therefore, require more energy to start and stop. 
     There's also the matter of personal preferences in bass reproduction.  For example, an apartment dweller may want to keep the bass down since bass sound waves can vibrate room boundaries(floor, ceiling and walls) and a portion of the in-room bass will be audible to the neighbors.
     OTOH, some weirdos who live in houses, such as myself, even believe the accurate reproduction of the bottom 2 octaves in music, about 16-32 Hz, is the main quality that separates a decent home audio system from a very good one.  Some of these complete whackos even utilize 4-sub distributed bass array (DBA) systems to achieve this ultra accurate and ultra realistic in-room bass reproduction. Weirdos!

Tim

You might want to consider the offerings from Bakoon. I don’t know the topology of their amps but their tiny amp-13r integrated seems to be class D.

this is a good discussion

i too am interested (in a more technical, geeky way) to understand WHY a class D amp delivers higher damping factor (let’s use that as a proxy for bass control and quality) than a similar class AB amp using standard transistors be they mosfets bipolars etc etc... let’s say the power supply quality is the same and the input stages are well designed... the switching amp or transistor effectively ’gates’ the power supply from the speaker load at the various frequencies asked of it, per the input signal

why is it that the class d module does it better than a well designed set of transistors, with a higher degree of control/accuracy?

The best amplifier I’ve heard is in class AB, bettering other much more expensive class A, AB and D amplifiers. I have had class D amplifiers which better class A and AB amplifiers. I have also had various D amps which vary widely in sound quality. So what I’m saying is that there is no such thing as a better class. It really is not as simple as which class.