High end Class D amps?

How many class D do I have to listen to? Is there a The class D which disproves the "myth"? Did I just happen to miss the good ones?

Here are some tips. The first thing is avoid amps using switch mode power supplies. The reason for this isn't that SMPSs work, they do and they can be quite low noise. The problem with them is they are cheap to buy off the shelf and expensive to have built custom. Off the shelf units tend to have current limiting protection circuits that cause the amp to suffer a loss of bass impact. So unless you are looking at an enormous amplifier manufacturer, they won't be able to afford to have a supply built custom.


This means that the supply has to be a traditional supply: power transformer, rectifiers and filter caps. The power transformer current and the capacity in the supply can have a profound effect on the performance of the amplifier, since class D amps can go from almost no current draw to really quite a lot at full power. This really means that the supply has to be well filtered, and the power transformer high current, else the power supply will sag at higher power (bass notes).

If the amp is zero feedback look for a filter frequency of 100KHz or higher. This is to reduce phase shift at audio frequencies. If they won't publish details like that, consider looking elsewhere.


If the amp employs feedback, find out how much. If details like that are not published, consider looking elsewhere. The feedback **must** be in excess of 35dB! Any less and the artifacts of the feedback itself will become audible (as they are in traditional amplifiers).


I understand your skepticism! The first class D amps I heard I really thought were a joke. But they have improved over the years, so much that about 5 years ago I personally started to take them seriously, but even then some are terrible (we have a small 30 watt amp we use for testing, but it sounds really boring; I've not looked into it to see why that might be the case, but its pretty obvious to everyone in the shop) and some really work quite well and everything in between.

@jaytor
Tube buffers are clearly the way to go.
https://atm-audio.com/class-d-amplifier/
https://vtvamplifier.com/product/vtv-amplifier-monoblock-purifi-audio-1et400a-amplifier-with-vtv-vacuum-tube-buffer/

Problems with any amps shouldn’t be fixed by using even more feedback as a fix, it’s a added by the best designers to clean thing up a little and usually just local not global in an already well designed amp.

All the greatest amp designers say it. An amp should be reasonably good spec’d, and to use it just as a clean up tool.
And the preference with the best is to use "local feedback" only by the best designers. Not global as being talked about here, and then even including the Class-D output filter in the global loop, what next throw the speaker wire and the speaker in the loop as well, like Trio/Kenwood tried all those years ago, utter sterilized disaster sound.

And using tube buffers with the capacitor coupling that’s needed. Is just colorized HF coverup softening job for the more serious Class-D sound problem.

Cheers George

@twoleftears  - I am thinking about trying an input buffer using tubes.

I don't think I would consider using the Korg NuTube like ATM does. This is a pretty high-distortion device - specifically designed to add distortion for synthesizer special effects. It also has a bad reputation for microphonics, and is hard to swap in and out. 

The 6DJ8/6922 tube that VTV uses is much better, but I'm not sure it's the ideal tube to use with the relatively low voltages I have available (approx +/-65v if I use the main supply for the Purifi module). I don't want to add another high voltage supply to drive a tube section, although I could consider a DC-DC converter as part of the buffer board design if I have to.

At any rate, I'd prefer to avoid the hassles of tubes, so I'm going to see what's possible with various solid state approaches first.

George - you obviously aren't interested in class D, so why do you keep bothering to post on this and other class D threads?