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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
hoganpc's avatar
hoganpc
28 posts
 
I sold high end audio fo many years part-time, including Metaxas, Meitner, Mission, B+K, Musical Fidelity, Adcom, and many others.  Although none of these were in the rarified atmosphere with Krell, Boulder, Audio Research etc., my observations will serve the purpose.

Many buyers approached the purchase with a preconceived notions usually based on reviews or advice form alleged audiophile friends.  Rarely would they bring along vinyl or Cds they knew or worse ones with a limited frequency range, e.g. rock music.

My mainstays for demoing were well recorded female vocalists, large symphonic works, pipe organs with bass down to to 32 hz, and "fast" persussion, all to demonstrate the full frequency spectrum. Amazingly cosmetics played a major role with many buyers.

Those that made wise decisions understood the importance of balance, micro dynamics, timbre, and the ability to transport the buyer in to the performance which can happen with less expensive gear if properly matched to the rest of the system.

And then there were those who dismissed out of hand any design type or brand they had been told was inferior or assumed it was. Like our OP.

My, what fun it was
jgandy
28 posts
 
For a comparison I have just connected two amp/speaker combinations to my preamp.  My primary system is JBL M2s supplemented with  a JBL Sub18 all driven by three Crown Itech 5000HD stereo amps.  This is a horn based active system, class D, with enormous amplification.  Adjacent to this system is one with a custom assembled enclosure with one Foster driver powered by a pair of Nextgear mono block tube amps.  With suitable musical selections it should be interesting to listen for subtle differences.  The goal is to put to rest any qualms I harbor concerning my horn, class D, JBL monster system concerning the finer points of musical listening beyond dynamics and bass which are incomparable in the JBL/crown. 





timlub
2,044 posts
 
@madavid0

You don’t seem to be fair in your assessment. You do a good job of tearing down class d, but you haven’t said how many that you’ve had in your home.
For me, I’ve owned a few Class A amps, a Ton of Class A/B and recently went on a DIY Binge with Class D. I have built 11 Class D amplifiers from modules. In every case, I have changed to larger caps on the rails to as much as I could fit and changed out or bypassed any caps on the input. On 1, I added post feedback circuitry on the output.
2 of these ended up being very satisfying, a bit toward the warm side, decent detail and 2 were very good by anyone’s standard. The others varied radically in sound quality. You might not consider this high end,  it only retailed at $15,000,  but I do have an Edge NL10.2 at home now.  
My Pre is an SST Ambrosia, I’ve been building speakers for 35 years, so the speakers are mine. These amps are no different than any in the sense that they will be someone’s favorite and others won’t care for them.

jjss49's avatar
jjss49
6,612 posts
 
@timlub

You don’t seem to be fair in your assessment. You do a good job of tearing down class d, but you haven’t said how many that you’ve had in your home.


to your comment, my own impression is that the op in making his opening post had no intention of being fair... it was to vent his frustration and voice his bias against this class of amp... if he has heard good sounding amps based on this technology (as they do exist) he likely wouldn’t admit it - such is the territory when one has an axe to grind, we are all guilty of doing this from now and then...
fleschler
2,046 posts
 
I've heard some nice Class D amps at shows which were $4K to $10K.  I just read a review at SoundStageUltra.com of the Merrill Audio 118, $36K Class D amps versus Mac 1.25KW $25K amps.  My best friend uses Channel Islands Class D amps for his difficult to drive speakers as that's what he can afford.   I own all tube equipment but for my new $5K DAC which is superior to my 15 year old tube DAC.  

@stereo5  I don't know about the early VS speakers but I've heard three of the top VS speakers over the last 5 years at shows and they are the best sounding speakers I've ever heard.  So many people enjoy the VS 33s that I suspect your system was not synergistically compatible.  I had a compatibility problem with an EAR 890 with my big speakers 15 years ago (6 12" low impedance woofers didn't mesh with the amp but works great with my 2nd system speakers with 6 10" higher impedance woofers).   
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