Class D amps seem poised to take over. Then what?
Hmm I have owned Class D, Class A, Class AB and there is zero chance I will ever use classe d in my main rig again. Class-D makes the music sound quantized with unnatural edges to the music. Good video unrelated on how quantization has messed up music. https://youtu.be/AFaRIW-wZlw |
I’ll just drop this stereophile.com review here. I wish I could show you a picture of the old Carr Street Sugden Factory in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, UK—or let you feel how warm the heatsinks were on the Sugden A21 SE pure class-A integrated amplifier ($3250) that powered the DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93 loudspeakers ($8400) in the room John DeVore shared with Sugden’s importer, Jonathan Halpern of Tone Imports. (The original A21 was the world's first production pure class-A transistor amplifier!) Trust me folks, class-D is like fake cocaine compared to the rolling, relaxed, shroom-like beauty of the Sugden A21 SE’s midrange. It was the end of the day: John and Jonathan knew I was revved up but that I’d relax when they played one of my all-time favorite songs, “Raining in My Heart,” by Slim Harpo. Slim’s harmonica was oozing Crayola colors while his words put darkness in my chest. I loved it—and I started to chill—but just a little. I needed more records and sweet sounds. |
Mrmeanor, by now, you should know better than to put all the products from individual classes (be the A, AB, SET, OTL) into one opinion, especially since you only included the Sudgen amp I have owned quite a few class D amps over the last 2 decades. Assessing them in hindsight, my entire system has improved exponentially, rendering any of my negative opinions moot. The more current improvement was replacing the cable between my power supply moded Oppo 105 and Audio Alchemy DDP-1 + PS 5 dac/pre with a $59 Pangea Premier Coax cable. That said, it likely would not have made the improvement that it has in my systems of old. My class D amp of nearly 2 years now is a EVS 1200 based on dual mono IcePower modules and a lot of Ric Schultz pixie dust. These are same modules in the later introduced PS Audio M1200s, but without Rics magic |
