For the Atma-sphere class D amp: Is a preamplifier necessary if only connecting a streamer/DAC to it? The streamer/DAC has it’s own volume control (if I want to enable it). Lumin S1.
@veerossi
Most digital products can drive it directly with ease.
Other than heat and efficiency, what do you think are the pros/cons of moving to this amplifier from an 805 tube amp (Line Magnetic LM-805ia)?
Its my opinion that the specs listed on the Line Magnetic website are suspect. At such high power levels its very hard to make an output transformer that will support that kind of bandwidth and be SET at the same time. At any rate, you'll likely appreciate the extra power, and if you are using a high efficiency speaker you'll appreciate the lower noise floor of the class D as well. My speakers are 98dB and I have to have my head in the midrange horn to hear any noise from the amps at all. That translates easily to better low level detail, assuming that the amp has all its other ducks in a row.
Its not going to be as lush but its not dry. It won't be as lush because its distortion is so much lower. The advantage is there is more musical detail and it does this without brightness. Distortion obscures detail, and its a simple fact that whether they admit it or not, before the onset of clipping nearly every SET made makes about 10% distortion. What this means is that any any power level an SET can make, the class D is going to be well over 2 orders of magnitude lower distortion- and so at any power level will offer more musical information.
Its not dry because the distortion it makes is very much like that of a tube amplifier- with the 2nd and 3rd harmonics being far more prominent than the higher orders, but of course all at a much lower level than you can get from a tube amp. That is why I ended the last paragraph the way I did- this stuff is easy to hear.
