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A great article on Class D/switching amps

The latest edition of The Absolute Sound has, in my opinion, the best overall perspective and evaluation of the eight most regarded class D switching amps on the market today.

The article contains an explanation of the technology, an interview with a couple of the most important designers, the individual reviews and finally a round table discussion regarding these amps.

I believe any of you GON members who might be considering auditioning a class D switching amp would want to review this piece regarding their different sonic signatures.

I had the pleasure of listening to the Kharma MP150 which the panel picked as being on top of the "heap" compared to Audio Research 300.2,Channel Island Audio D-200, Nuforce Reference 9 Special Edition, Red Dragon Audio Leviathan Signature, Jeff Roland Design Group 201, Cary Audio Design A 306,and finally the Spectron Musician III.

Each amp had at least two different reviewers with different systems evaluate them and then compare their experiences. This was a well done piece and if you read it I believe you find it both educational and helpful to understand what these amps are all about.
teajay
coffeey's avatar
coffeey
363 posts
 
Ive listened to a couple digital amps and am not hearing half the neg. stuff mentioned in that article.Seemed like a strange article anyway.
dazzdax
599 posts
 
I'm a subscriber of The Absolute Sound, but I didn't receive any issue containing the article you've mentioned.

Chris
sean
6,231 posts
 
I dropped my subscription to TAS a while back. Can anyone offer what specific issue this article is in? Sean
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stltrains
845 posts
 
hey sean you can down load tas, i agree with chris martens view on the subject, mike
vicdamone
850 posts
 
Sean, it's the November 2006 Issue 166.

Good, bad, or crooked, I love the audio press. If nothing else I've been turned onto many artist, via their record reviews, that I would of most certainly overlooked. For the most part they due their job of informing us to the best of their abilities and I mean that in the positive sense. The ability to give a product a negative review yet leave you feeling that the product may still hold promise in your system and side stepping the truly bogus products is as it should be.

TAS has awarded one of these class D amplifiers their Amplifier Of 2005. Then in this roundup/shootout they inform us that all but one has issues and that one was not the amp of 2005.

The true beauty of this class D article shows the reader exactly how ludicrous it is for the reader to get a clear picture of a products performance when no two writers are using the same equipment, regardless of their personal tastes? I believe most of these writers are very well experienced to preform this task, but when they rely on their sonic memory or refer to their notes of a past review it becomes obvious that the method is extremely flawed. Blah, blah, blah.

Class D has been around for some time but it's only been in the past few years that these designs have made stunning progress. I find class D to be one of the most exciting technologies in fidelity today. The investment is small, listen for yourself.
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