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Honest Amp Reviews: Impossible?

So, I’ve noticed a flood of class D junk hitting the market over the last several years. They come from many different brand names from people you’ve never heard of before like "VTV", to popular Internet-in-the-know brands like PS Audio to famous names like Marantz. One thing they ALL have in common: the complete inability to find honest reviews online for these products.

For example, let’s take for instance the Stellar series from PS Audio. Class D junk with the usual attempt to improve euphonics with some kind of input stage. They call this scheme class AD, I guess to differentiate all the other brands that do something similar. However, you’ll never see a review site point this out; they’ll comment briefly on the design and then dutifully call it class AD afterwards as if it isn’t just a class D amp like many others.

Next, the reviewer will invariably lie about the sound. This lying usually takes the form of lying by omission. They’ll gush about how beefy and controlled it is, how neutral it is, how wide and natural the soundstage is, etc. What they WON’T mention is how lifeless, flat, boring and ultimately fatiguing they ALL are. The buyer who doesn’t know any better has to find that out for themselves while he slowly grows to distrust anything a reviewer has to say about anything. So, the only way to actually get value out of a review is to see if a certain amp has the positive attributes you are looking for while trying to painstakingly research any problems it might have because the reviewer won’t mention them.

In addition to the lies of omission, there’s the usual con of giving certain gear to certain reviewers who will appreciate / like the piece. That Stellar will NEVER be put up against a Dan D’agostino or a Pass for example. This could be valuable to the buyer to see how a lesser amp stacks up against a high end one, but it’s not, apparently, useful to the reviewers. Why? Why is telling the whole truth about amps -- all gear really -- taboo?
madavid0
duckworp's avatar
duckworp
257 posts
 
It is unfortunately true that most reviews are entirely positive.

It is important to learn to read them by omission and by working out language that is actually disguised negativity.   
fstein's avatar
fstein
199 posts
 
Hey Madavid0:Replaced my Pass Aleph 0 with ATI 52XX class D amp which in turn was replaced by VTV Purifi class D. Each step was a definite step up.
Preamps: McIntosh C47, Schiit Freya  TT: Garrard 301 in Nantais base, Fidelity Research arm with hot-rodded Denon103 (Boron cant./wood body  DAC: balanced Topping D90. Speakers Wayne Parham 4PiIf this does not meet your standards for resolution, too bad.

melvinjames
416 posts
 
my question is why does the op read reviews if his mind is already all made up that class d as a category is sub par... reading reviews till cows come home won’t change that mindset... seems to me he is just venting and trolling...

Yes, and he's also trying to save us from ourselves. As Erik already pointed out he's posted provocative threads in the past. He's also well-known on at least one other forum under a different name. Same. Exact. Relentless. $hit. 

stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,379 posts
 
Although this isn’t about Class D, I am in agreement with the OP regarding reviews. It’s what the reviewer doesn’t say that is most important. I aired a gripe about reviewer Greg Weaver reviewing every Von Schweikert speaker allowed to TAS for reviewing. IMHO, Mr. Weaver is a VS fanboy of the entire line. I bought a pair of VS VR33 speakers 7 years ago after reading his very flattering review of them.

I was extremely disappointed in them, actually hated them, and I took a bath on them when I was finally able to sell them. Yet, Mr. Weaver gushed and gushed over them. He said it was the BEST 15K speaker for only $3400.00. He does this with every VS speaker he reviews! I will never trust any of his reviews again and after re-reading the review many times, I came to realize he omitted the most important things regarding the speaker.
madavid0 OP
214 posts
 
Yes that is exactly the sort of lying by omission and also being breathlessly positive over everything being reviewed which makes professional reviews useless. We shouldn't HAVE to read between the lines and pick apart what's not being said.

How did I develop this hatred of class D? I didn't start out that way. I developed that outlook after numerous failed experiments. There was always an excuse, always someone breathlessly extolling THIS amp was the greatest, THIS one is the real deal, THIS one will change your mind about the topology, etc. All LIES. It would have been GREAT if the reviewers had taken on the burden of explaining the serious limitations of class D and how even the best ones will be fatiguing long-term, that way I could have limited my pain being sent down wrong paths for so long. I had to learn the hard way that I'm NOT the target market for cheap cost-cut crap sold at a massive markup to people who were led to believe that they found the secret super value club when in fact were just suckered into a class D scam.

It would be GREAT if reviewers could lead off a class D review with "As my readers know, class D amps are garbage for these reasons. Today we're looking at X amp to see if it can overcome the faults of the topology has been struggling with for decades." If the manufacturers don't like having their products lumped in with "garbage", then they should consider not releasing garbage.
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