Class D Amplification Announcement
After 60 some odd years of disappointment, Class D has finally arrived. As per The Absolute Sound’s Jonathan Valin, the Borrenson-designed Aavik P-580 amp “is the first Class D amplifier I can recommend without the usual reservations. …the P-580 does not have the usual digital-like upper-mid/lower-treble glare or brick wall-like top-octave cut-off that Class D amps of the past have evinced.”
Past designers of Class D and audiophiles, rejoice; Michael Borrenson has finally realized the potential of Class D.
The reason we did it is because the switching nature of the class allows the designer to be freed from a lot of the distortion sources that cause solid state (AB designs) to sound bright and harsh. In that regard, the same reason we've made tube amps for the last 49 years.
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@jjss49 Yes, I definitely intend to reach out to Alberto when I’m close to making a decision. The problem is that currently I have an integrated amp (Audio Hungary Qualiton a50i), so getting an AGD amp can only happen after I have also acquired a preamp. From what I understand, I cannot use my Qualiton purely as a preamp. If I’m mistaken, feel free to correct me. Also, if I do get a preamp most likely it will be tube-based. I don't want to be too adventurous :) Baby steps! Second problem is that my current setup (Qualiton a50i + Joseph Audio Perspective2) is sounding so great that I don’t know if I want to change anything. I finally dialed in the subs perfectly, and to be honest, this is by far the best my system has performed. Not to say there is no further room for improvement. But I just don’t want to make a lateral move. But what I do know is that whenever the itch gets out of control, AGD will be top of the list. I really appreciate your input. |
Yes. There's a lot of noise around the 'sound' of class D amps on the internet (IME class D amps can vary in sound quite dramatically, more so than the sound of various tube amps can vary). This is for various reasons- in ability to really implement the use of existing modules, poor power supply design, as well as modules that don't have good (meaning 'musical') distortion spectra; all these things made it hard to know how far class D as a technology had really come. I started to sort that out about 6 years ago and realized that we had better get going or be left behind. |
