10K class d is paying for a name, and aesthetics.
800$ class D amp is smart buy.
Don’t let the sheep make a line you can’t help but follow.
Happy hunting.
As with any audio component these days, it's possible to get pretty good quality for a modest sum (say, under $1K for most component types). Clear improvements beyond this quality require considerably higher investment.
Consider a simple component like a film cap. A cheap no-name 1uF cap will cost about $0.30 qty 1 at retail. Stepping up to a better quality WIMA will increase the price to $0.50. Moving up to a SoniCap will increase the price to close to $10. A Miflex KPCU copper foil cap will increase the price to close to $75.
Multiply this by the hundred+ components in a given product and you can see how the build cost for high end products can quickly escalate.
Whether these "upgrades" result in sound quality improvements that are worth the incremental cost is up to the customer, but since there is a fairly robust market in high-priced gear, many people believe it is.
But saying that you are just paying for name and aesthetics is just not true. Class D amplifiers can benefit from judicious use of higher quality components and more sophisticated design approaches as much as any other product.
