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

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.

Looks like I stirred a pot by posting the review..lol! I always taken reviews as a guideline to one’s subjective opinion of a component in their system and personal preferences. Nothing more, nothing less! To @soix point, a comparison with any competitive product would’ve provided a bit more clarity and better understanding on how review sample stacks up against the competition. At the end of the day, it is still an opinion. No two systems are alike, let alone the environment and how we perceive sound…it’s all very subjective and complexed to nth degree.

@atmasphere class D mono’s been on my radar to audition in my system ever since they were announced. A crappy or over hyped review shouldn’t change anyone’s desire to audition or dump a component. A true test of a component is how it sounds (gels) within your system and to your ears.