High end Class D amps?

If you think of the number of people on the planet, who are audiophiles or enthusiasts, and among those who own speakers whose impedance dip to less than 2 ohms - that must be 0.01%? Don't know. But for the rest of us folks the Purifi would be more than sufficient.
+1 @twoleftears 
Would love to hear from other Purifi owners experience who own Nord or March.

@phd


I had a HCA-2 and still have a PSAudio GCC 250 (moded as new by Chris Johnson) that I bought when it first came out. I then had several W4S models > Emerald Physics 100.2 SEs with upgraded fuses > Audio Alchemy DPA-1> PS Audio M700s, and now, and for the foreseeable future, my awesome EVS 1200, though I am still in line for the Voyager GaN


Stereophile has a very nice review of the $2500 Marantz 30 integrated

     I’m with twoleftears, I’m always up for a thorough discussion on all the class D amps that owners think are noteworthy. I’m very satisfied currently with my 6 year old pair of D monoblocks but I’m constantly curious about the latest examples and I’m very interested in reading about opinions on them, whether from owners or those that have personally auditioned them.
     I became a member here back in 2013, and if I recall correctly, that’s about the time that the newer, very high quality class D amps began becoming available. At that time, I remember there were a lot of forums from owners of various brands of these very high efficiency, small, lightweight and relatively affordable class D amps that were being extolled as also offering very good full frequency range performance.
     These claims of very good full frequency range performance seemed to be a major point of disagreement on the forums at that time. The class D naysayers were typically proclaiming they were only suitable for bass amplification, sterile midranges lacking body along with bright and fatiguing treble.  
      Even as long ago as 2013, the class D amp advocates were proclaiming many of the latest D amps were much improved, powerful, dynamic with high quality full range performance, including the vary important midrange and treble frequencies, in their systems with a variety of speakers.
     After reading many of these early forum discussions on the merits of class D amps, I was a bit perplexed and frustrated. Were these amps as good as described by many? Why was there such a polarization of viewpoints, with avid opinions on both pro and con explanations? Were these class D amps, being examples of newer advancements applied to a somewhat older technology, any good or not?
     I finally realized I was unlikely to receive any objective answers to my questions by simply reading Audiogon and other audio forums about them. So, I decided I needed to just pick out a reasonably well performing and priced class D amp, purchase it on a free 30 day in-home trial basis and determine the technology’s viability for myself in my own system and room.
     I bought my initial class D amp, a Class D Audio SDS-440-CS high powered stereo unit from a company in California, based on its generally favorable reviews and reasonable $540 price.  To state I was impressed by this relatively small and lightweight amp would be a serious understatement. It easily outperformed my 2 prior decent quality and high powered class AB amps, an Aragon and a McCormack, in driving my Magnepan 2.7QR main speakers I used at that time.
     So I finally had my answer, even a budget class D amp performed very well in my own, very important just to me, opinion. I was definitely impressed, but somewhat unexpectedly, this only made me more curious about the practical applications of this new to me class D technology.  As a result, I fairly quickly decided to purchase a few more D amps to see just how good higher priced and quality examples might perform. I next bought a stereo Emerald Physics EP100.2SE unit and then a pair of monoblock D-Sonic M3-600-M amps.
     My main points? The D-Sonics are the best performing class D amps I’ve used to date, Just like twoleftears, however, I’m still curious about new advancements in class D amp technology in general and I welcome any reasonable forum discussions on the subject.
     I also suggest, for any others uncertain about the performance level provided by class D amps in general, that individuals don’t rely on taking mine or anyone else’s opinion on the topic.
     Instead, I recommend individuals take advantage of one of the numerous class D amp company offers, of no risk free in-home trial periods, and just decide on the merits of the class D amp or amps for themselves.

Tim

The best measuring class D amp modules at this time are the purifi and Ncore. That's not to say others like ICE or Pascal are not good, most likely they would be indistinguishable in properly designed implementation. As an example  the Dutch and Dutch  8c uses Pascal after testing various modules because they could get them for a better price and couldn't hear or measure any difference. I believe Buchardt uses Pascal as well. There is no reason class D amps should be expensive at least by audiophile standards unless the company uses high priced case design, name recognition,  added coloration through implementing purposeful distorion by way of tubes etc... , more features like the Nad M33, room correction,  dac, streamer. 

Then next you lot may as well just tell us to use this 6000watt!!!!! Class-D Behringer for just $600us.

Let me tell you, that on the Wilson Alexia in an a/b it was trounced by the 40 x times less powerful!!! Gryphon in dynamics and bass control. The Behringer was thin, anemic, weak in the bass and sounded like it was struggling

This post is using a Guilt by Association logical fallacy, which is that since the Behringer amp is class D and struggles, therefore all class D amps will struggle on the same load. Logical fallacies are false by definition.

 It's my understanding that efficiency has been the primary advantage and raison d'etre of class D amps since the get go. Their further efficiencies in weight, size and cost are just peripheral advantages. 

One advantage of class D amps that isn't mentioned so much is how they make distortion, and what sort of distortion they make. The distortion is mostly based on the linearity of the encoding system and deadtime used in the output section. A good deal of this distortion tends to be lower ordered harmonics. A second advantage is that if you use a self-oscillating circuit (which is an idea that's been around for about 20 years or so) then it is possible to put far more feedback in the design than is possible (for the most part) with traditional solid state designs. This is how the Purify module is capable of such low distortion. This also results in an output impedance that is so low its pretty difficult to measure. **That** simple fact means that the amp can act as a voltage source into speaker loads that are quite a bit less than one ohm, even if its power supply can't support doubling output power at full power into such a load. But if the amp is playing at a few watts (IOW: normal listening volumes) it will do so with ease.