Ditching Class A Amps due to Heat - Sort of a Poll

I have a class A amp on my main system and a EL34 tube integrated on a second.  The heat is a non-issue for me. I've owned some good quality class D amps (2 different Bel Cantos and a VTV Hypex along with some more basic units) and like the sound quality of my current amps better. The only advantage I find for class D is that they can be left on all the time, but I really don't expend that much energy in pushing the on/off switch. 

@kingharold +1

Mike

@kingharold funny. 

So far it's about 5 to 1 that people are not ditching Class A, good to hear. Hopefully we will never see an Energy Star Sticker on the back of Amps :)

A big defender of Class D claims that Class A is going away on it’s own and would never become effected by limits placed on electrical consumption or heat output, but just because everyone no longer wants it or wants Class D or similar.

I’ve been running class A tube amps for over 50 years. I’ve been manufacturing them for nearly that long as well. I’ve never liked the heat, so it was really nice to find that after 5 years of R&D that we had a class D product that sounds better than our tube amps. I run them at home now and don’t miss the tubes at all.

(FWIW Our OTLs have gotten very nice reviews and awards in the high end press, best sound at show, stuff like that.)

What makes an amp sound a certain way is its distortion signature, unless its output impedance is high enough that you run into frequency response colorations as well. Class D amps can have a very low output impedance, eliminating the latter issue and it is possible to have them have similar distortion as tube amps make, meaning they can be smooth through the mids and highs, which is also why people like class A amplifiers in general.

Its very likely that I’m the person @brianh61 is referring to with the comment above.

I went from class A to class D on account of the sound, nothing else. Class A is doomed at this point; ten years from now class A offerings will be vastly reduced and it will be by market forces and not some ’green’ agenda (which isn’t a thing when it comes to amplifier classes of operation- no one is out to regulate that).