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Class D amps seem poised to take over. Then what?

I am certainly biased by my lifetime final amp being a Class D. But I know that after 30+ years of development, Class D seems to be on a high plain. I know there are now many, many companies focusing on Class D and, maybe, a good handful already as good as it gets. My Class D amp is as smooth and beautifully musical as a great tube amp and as punchy and detailed as a great SS amp. I am satisfied and done with my search. A class D amp has effectively taken me off the amp merry-go-round. It’s about time after 50 years. And, for me, this Class D is a milestone. Will all other classes of amps fade away?
mglik
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
These companies that claim double wattage when impedence is halved don’t give the actual 8ohm measurement

Usually if they don’t, they are hiding something. Stereophile does for Class-D if you read the Lab Tests on them and that’s usually is in the negative.
But even Stereophile doesn’t usually do 2ohm testing on Class-D’s as they are usually pitiful, when compared to the good linear solid BJT state amps for putting out big (doubling watts) current.

Cheers George
invalid
1,223 posts
 
Even the big high bias amps built with BJT's can't do it. When stereophile measures them their 8ohm full power measurements are a lot higher than the spec.
invalid
1,223 posts
 
I don't think there is an amp made that can direct drive the apogee full range, the midrange when direct driven is .14 ohms
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Even the big high bias amps built with BJT's can't do it.

Oh dear🤦‍♂️, to say that an amp doubles, is just a "saying", maybe it should read "close to doubling", but hey, I didn't make up the saying.

No! amp can  perfectly double it wattage from 8  to 4 to 2 ohms, that would be a furphy, and would be like saying perpetual motion is a reality.
aschuh's avatar
aschuh
42 posts
 
I can second the comments by those who have/have heard AGD amplifiers.
My bias towards Class D has been negative -my Bladelius Ask has a ‘green’ mode using a Class D module, which is flat and harsh compared to the ‘performance mode’ which is ClassA/AB and very good.
New speakers in another system are higher efficiency ( Viking Acoustics Berlin), and the LSA Statement (hybrid integrated) driving them sounds wonderful, yet is simply too noisy. I hear the tube hiss at lower volume and can’t ‘unhear’ it. My search for a replacement led me to the AGD Audion, which I had the pleasure to listen to at Ocean Way Audio in LA. I found everything stated about these amps, also in this thread and particularly by @atmasphere, confirmed. These are superb amps. Tube like sound and dead quiet. It does of course help when one of the most accomplished recording engineers in the industry endorses a product. In my mind, this is not a mere variation of a theme, it is a discrete innovation when you consider form factor and performance.
I ordered a pair…
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