Class D amps that are superior to all or most?

Ric, I really appreciate your last post! Cleeds’ post enlightened me to the fact that I did not see the disclosure of "ricevs", as I am not familiar with your company. I removed my two previous posts, as I now consider them unproductive to continued discourse.

I also want the truth, which is what I was probing for in those posts. I do not have the topological answers you seek; you would need to discuss with Legacy Audio.

I mean no offense when I state that no one can tell whether a modded component from any modder would sound better than any given stock component from another manufacturer. I do understand you comment about all components being modded. I have compared a fair number of tweaked/modded products, and I have found no direct correlation between modding being universally superior to any other given stock component. That is why I state one simply has to make comparison. Others may have different experience, but that has been my experience.

In reply to your comment, "What I do is not financially viable to run a company," you are not alone. I have heard similar several times from other manufacturers.

I'm still confused.  Legacy makes a whole family of these amps, from the Legacy i-V1 through to the i-V8, offering one through eight channels of amplification.  Can the i-V4 be bridged to 2-channel output?  Or?

This is what I think.  Legacy buys stereo modules.  They use them in all the amps.  So, an i-v8 would have 4 stereo modules (8 channels).  The regular i-v4 has two stereo modules (4 channels).  The I-v4 ultra has 4 stereo modules (8 possible channels) but they use just one channel of each module so they are basically mono amps.  This gives more power for each channel and zero cross talk.  Each channel is already bridged, so you cannot bridge an already bridged amp.  So, no the i-v4 ultra cannot be bridged in any way.  It already has 1200 watts into 4 ohms on each of its 4 channels.  How much power do you need?  I believe the i-v2 dual mono stereo amp has 2 stereo amps and then just uses one channel of each amp to make it mono.

I have had mostly good A/AB amps over the years and one tube amp. Some amps were hell with some speakers, so amp/speaker synergy is still critically important no matter what you think you prefer. (I prefer a 'system sound' which starts with the best speaker I can afford with the sound I prefer, and then adds electronics in support of it.)

I now use a W4S STI-1000 integrated in my main system. It's my first Class D amp.  I use the DEAD SILENT pre-amp switching into a dsp room correction unit, then back the the STI-1000's power amp section.

This feeds a pair of highly resolving (perhaps slightly warm) near full-range two-way loudspeakers. The sound works for me with stunning detail and treble resolution second to none with never a bit of fatigue at all. The bass is solid and tight within limits of the speaker's ability.

I agree with other W4S owners in their characterizations, and have no doubt that the ST-1000 amp can feed the load of the Martin Logan CLS. I owned SL3s as mains for sixteen years (and still own them but now displaced as mains).

If I was made of money I might experiment with other amps but as of now I fortunately do not feel the need. The W4S Class D works extremely well in my system. I have none of the Class D prejudices others rant about.

To @ricevs   I am a long-time Legacy customer of many of their speakers and also happen to be an owner of the i.V4 Ultra amp since May of 2020 (very happily and very impressed I might ad).

The "ULTRA" build is using 4 stereo 1200AS2 boards with each single board as I understand it being dedicated and applied to power 1 channel.

What I can tell you for sure is that I have been extremely happy and impressed with this 4-channel amp (and have a friend with an i.V3 Ultra and another with an i.V2 that are equally impressed). I, like the 2 guys that I know, have been in this hobby for about 3 decades each and were early on firm tube amp lovers followed by "big expensive solid state lovers and bigots" for Class A and/or AB designs costing 10s of thousands of dollars and weighing 100-200 and more pounds. Note I still love great tube, Class A and AB solid state for the record and appreciate the merits of any reference-level amplifier.

I will not throw out manufacturer names for things I've owned and even more that I've heard  but I will say there are some big names on the list that I've owned and more that I've heard deeply that I remember and respect very much that today would have a hard time competing with what I'm hearing out of this Legacy i.V4 Ultra so I am inclined to agree with everything qualitative that is said in the review based upon my direct listening experiences only owning this amp.

I don't however want to get into a '&*^%^#$' contest with anyone who takes umbrage at the claims in the review.

It's a fantastic, musical, dynamic, detailed, powerful amplifier design that weighs a fraction of what I'm used to dragging up and down stairs, etc. and costs what I think is an incredibly reasonable price.  I'd suggest to anyone that it is well worth a listen to a well broken-in demo on a good system and do some careful listening; you might be very surprised and pleased at what you hear!