Class D Amp For 'Stats?

Art, I imagine you forgot my speakers have an impedance of eight tenths of an ohm. One H2O owning fellow I know is trying out his on new ultra light ribbons at .4 ohms, and likes very much what he is hearing.

The NuForce Reference 9 amps sound extremely natural and musical with conventional speakers and have no problem driving loads well under 1 ohm. That said, I believe the NuForce and probably a lot of the other amps (even analog amps) sound somewhat different when hooked up to a large capacitive load. I believe that Jason at NuForce has had some experience using NuForce amps to drive SoundLabs speakers. So you might want to contact him to see how that experiment turned out.

Here I go speculating again (it's a bad habit you know), but I blieve that if you have an Atmasphere or CAT, and any of the switching amps (as good as they are, and they are quite good) for 3 weeks of audition on your Sound Labs you will find yourself willing to put up with the heat, the warm up, the hassel, the expense, the pain, etc., due to the more immediate and palpable soundfield that will emanate from you panels. Call it body, richness, bloom or whatever but, the excitment and "you are there" experience is arresting.

Here is something to consider; most, if not all, switching amplifiers being mentioned in this thread are available from the vendor for audition with a full money back guarantee. It's a sign of confidence in their products and, a credit to the manufacturers offering this policy. You have one of the best speakers on the market. Go to the trouble of finding the one that makes hay in your system. You will ultimately be far happier. Every one wants to be on easy street and live the simple life but, the life of an audiophile was never meant to be easy.

The UcD based amps do have a slight interaction. Less than ICEpower based amps. I have extensive experience with both.

The gang at Hypex is confident that it will handle low-Z loads. Tell the truth, I have never tested them that way. (We only offer the UcD version for HT applications, and you most likely won't find 'stats or Apogees there.)

It's been suggested that speaker impedance variation with frequency might affect operation of the output filter of digital amps. Perhaps that explains why Magneplanar speakers, with their flat resistive impedance, respond so well to powerful digital amplifiers.