Price for the Tempo direct from AGD is $5500. Only a couple of dealers listed for the US. Don’t know if you can get a discount from one of them, or not.
New Class D amplifiers
Hello. I'm very interested in getting your opinion on the newer Class D amplifiers. There has been a couple of very positive reviews (by Guttenberg) of the Bel Canto C6i and NAD M23. These, and perhaps some others are offering new technology that significantly lower the class D noise level and other drawbacks.
I currently use a Class A amp, Pass Labs INT-25 (with Dynaudio Heritage Special speakers) which has a wonderful sound. But I am transitioning to another location, and due to using Roon primarily I find that this system stays on most of the day. Due to heat and power usage of Class A amplifiers, I'm interested in translating to Class D if I find something comparable.
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@erik_squires 48 hours on to sound best for probably the same reason I leave my pre and CDP on 24/7. They run so cool it takes forever for them to warmup and sound their best. Since I leave them on all the time I turn off and unplug for about 30 seconds once a month. Seems to be beneficial. |
@grantgg: I am surprised that neither you, in your quite lengthy list of Class-D amps (including integrated models), nor has anyone else contributing to this forum’s thus-far two pages of discussion on this topic, mentioned the now quite widely advertised HiFi Rose RA180 integrated amplifier. which is admittedly a rather unusual-looking piece of Class-D audio equipment with its gear-driven volume control and other SteamPunk-like features (some liken its appearance to the high-end Swiss manufacturer Nagra’s equipment). This Seoul, South Korea-based company claims that it is using a new variety of solid-state transistors, gallium nitride (GaN) FET transistors in place of the standard silicon ones, which for technical reasons are claimed to greatly improve the sound of traditional Class-D amplifiers, which suffer from time-delay problems associated with using silicon-based transistors. Julie Mullins of Stereophile Magazine published a review of the HiFi Rose RA180 integrated amplifier on December 2, 2022 - take a look at her in-depth review here: HiFi Rose RA180 integrated amplifier | Stereophile.com. I’m surprised no one else posting here has mentioned this particular integrated amp, which is quite feature-laden, including its ability to drive biamplifed speakers. |
You will get all kind of opinions but bottom line is you have to try it and see if a class d amp works for you. It has for me for many years and I have heard it all at shows, dealers. Etc. Everyone has a spin. Bottom line is class d is as viable as anything and in many cases more affordable. Not to mention more efficient, generally smaller and easy to deal with. Only you can decide. I can only recommend you do. I “downsized” to a Cambridge Evo 150 (Hypex based) recently based on positive press and glad I did. Read the readily available info and reviews. No BS there. It sounds and works exactly as advertised. Good luck deciding! So many good ways to go with Class D these days. It’s a better time than ever to be an audiophile ! I had a listening session with a friend just yesterday! Pure bliss! Couldn’t ask for more.
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