Class D amplifiers. What's the future look like?

Where is his very precise review of these new mono blocks against all the LATEST class D or otherwise,,,,,done directly in his listening room, RIGHT NOW. NOT there....not there at all. How does the Atmas-sphere compare to a Benchmark amp, to a VTV high powered Purifi or Orhard with all my mods, or to the AGD amps or to Pass amps or to super tube amps in that price range, etc.? How are we to know anything about how it really is and compares with anything already available? All reviews need to be against a known reference in the same system at the same time or it is totally meaningless. The reviewer does not even mention any other amps nor the amps that he currently owns. This review is typical of reviews these days.....completely meaningless.

Agreed. HiFi+ and TAS reviews (among others) are utter garbage because they almost never compare the review sample directly to any competitive product and often don’t even disclose the relevant component in their reference system. As such, their reviews are basically useless and IMHO serve as nothing more than a product advertisement. My theory on this is twofold:

1) Not comparing a review sample directly to a competitive product almost completely absolves the reviewer of any accountability or being pinned down on any assertions he/she makes — they just wax poetic about whatever they “think” or “feel” at the time.  The mags that don’t do comparisons parrot the same line that “it’s unlikely anyone has that specific comparison piece in their system.” Hogwash!!! The fact is humans are very good at relative comparisons and much worse at judging individual things in a vacuum. Relative comparisons are almost always the most important and useful part of any thorough review.

2) It allows the reviewer, and thus the magazine, to spit out “reviews” at a much faster rate as making actual equipment comparisons significantly increases the time to write a review.

When I wrote reviews for Soundstage! a product comparison section was mandatory, and if a reviewer didn’t have or couldn’t get a comparable piece to do a relevant comparison to the product under review they didn’t get to do the review. Period. That, IMO, is the right and only way to do a thorough and meaningful review. Sorry for the sidetrack, but I thought @ricevs hit on a very salient point that warranted some emphasis.

Ralph mentioned musical instrument amps. I have a 700 watt class d quilter for bass, and it does the job. I think digital for guitar is very much a debate. I think for clean sounds class d is great. The nuance of an overdriven marshall is the sort of thing folks are not quite there on—but as with all things digital—the technology improves over time. Many bar-playing musicians say the guitar amp emulation is not 100% but its close enough to use on stage and not hump heavy amps around.

As to audiophile, my assessment of Ralph over 40 years is that when he says his amp sounds great, I believe him. Over the years many golden ear types thought his amps sounded good, so he must have a good ear or have access to one.Switching technology is a different paradigm altogether, and its not hard to imagine tubes and linear transistors becoming extremely niche. I wish the best for ARC, and I hope they have this sort of thing in development. 

This is how the internals of 1930 computers looked. Compare that to the internals of today's desktops/laptops/servers/super computers

That's it...I just got meself a brilliant business idea. My Class D-iddly amp company will, hereby, be known as "Exo-sphere", i.e., what you hear from my amp will launch you all the way past the atmosphere into the exosphere itself. You will be a lick away from feeling the eternally blakkkk background of space when you listen to my D-iddly amp.

I am gonna buy some kits from aliexpress for a 150 bucks with shipping. I will sprinkle some sodium chloride inside the chassis, light some incense and do a shamanistic dance with it. Thereafter, I will gorilla glue a fake gold label called "Exosphere" on it.

Price = 5700 USD, Exosphere profit per unit = 5550 USD

Thereafter, i will create a hidey account and play the pied piper for my product for a few months. I will pretend that i'm a completely ecstatic customer overjoyed with a Exosphere Class D-iddly amp. I will also pay a couple of other forum pied pipers to sing eternal ecstatic prose about my D-iddly amp.

As all you boys hand me your hard earned cash and empty your retirement accounts, I will laugh all the way to the bank and cash the checks selling Exosphere amps for 5700 a pop. When i see my cousin/my brotha from anotha motha (you know who) snickering away, cashing his checks at the bank, we will hug, hold hands, laugh together and get sloshed at the bar next door to the bank....Oh yeah...baby....Oh yeah...early retirement, here i come....

Exactly how much time did you waste thinking up and writing that nonsense?

I think he might need to work on his business model 😁

@soix FWIW Eric uses a set of DeVore Fidelity speakers in his system; the same that he used for the M-60 review. IIRC the o/96s.