Class D amps that are superior to all or most?

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!

"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."

To @ricevs  great post....that is what I understood last year when I spoke with Dudleston at Legacy before deciding to buy the i.V4 Ultra....

I am sure the Legacy amps are very good. Stock IceEdge modules in a box. However, most people would want the dual mono iV2 amp that retails for $4785 (most don’t need or want a four channel amp like the $8700 iV4 Ultra). You can buy a stereo dual mono amp using mono IceEdge modules from Rouge Audio Design in Italy and have it delivered to your door for $1600.......a savings of $3185!!!!! I can also do mods on any IceEdge amplifier for very little money that improves their sound. Of course, many do no like buying via mail order and also from small companies and also don’t care for modding. I fully understand. The IceEdge modules are seriously reliable.

Yes they are indeed very good, actually excellent in sound quality and much more than simply purchased modules installed in a box based upon my opening the cover and speaking based upon what I see first-hand.

Additionally, when you look at the dynamic range capabilities of stereo source material (which is predominantly recorded at 24 bits) and the emergence of streaming high resolution two channel audio as well as Atmos surround sound, using an amplifier that can keep up with the dynamic range is increasingly beneficial.

While this is certainly true, it has nothing to do with a properly functioning amplifier. Usually it has more to do with making sure that the speakers used with the amp are such that when the dynamic range of the music is expressed, you hear everything without distortion, even if its at lifelike levels.

As an example, in 1959 RCA released the Soria series recordings. Dorle Soria came from Angel to work with RCA and produced upscale recordings and packaging. One such recording is the Verdi Requiem, which is recorded without any compression. The second cut on side one has dynamic range that can bring many systems to their respective knees. But if you have enough power and you have easy to drive speakers its no problem!