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Class-D amps - a different re view

Martin Colloms, the editor of HiFi Critic (ad-free mag from the UK) have recently published the review of several different Class-D amps, together with an in depth technical analysys and measurments.

His conclusions were not favourable, to say at least:

"I regret that not a single model merits unqualified recommendation. Price is not the issue; the poor listening tests speak for themselves. (...)
At present we have to take the prudent view that good sound might be possible from switching amps, but we haven't heard it yet."

BelCanto REF1000 (ICEpower) - score 10.5 pooints
"The ICE power module used has a dependable reputation, and the design is well built and finished as a whole. While I would not suggest that you shouldn't try this amp, on sound quality grounds alone I cannot recommend it for audiophile use."

Channel Islands D100 (UcD) - score 13 pooints
"While I have reservations about a number of aspects of sound quality, and advise personal audition, given the solid lab results (...) the overall performance and the moderate price, these CA Audio monos do make it to the 'worth considering' cathegory."

NuForce 8.5V2 (proprietary technology) - score 9 pooints
"Yes, the price is good for the power output. Yes it's pretty, light, small and runs cool. However, the sound quality simply does not justify recommendation." (on top of that the NuForce amp measured very poorly - Elb)

Pro-Ject Amp Box (Flying Mole) - score 5 points
"I'm sorry to say that Project (...) was a real disappointment in the listening tests, and can't be recommended."

Just as a point of reference, recently reviewed Krell 700CX scored 100 points, CJ Premier 350 - 110 points and ARC Ref 110 - 135 points.

At least someone have had the balls to say it. This is why HiFi Critic is THE mag to subscribe.
128x128elberoth2
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Hi Vince, that's exactly my point. The sound of rosin for example is extremely faint and can be heard clearly only if you 'are' a microphone, or you are sitting/standing so close to the performer to be socially unacceptable under most circumstances. most concert goers will never hear the rasp of rosyn from the 4th, 12, 30th, or 50th row behind that plynth. . , particularly if they are surrounded by other listeners wearing sound absorbing winter clothing. Besides, what is 'real'? What I can hear when in a good day without tinnitus I can outperform audiometric equipment? or what's real is what the average middle age listener hears with a 12,000Hz cutoff, or what my dog can hear with a bandwidth of perhaps 50Khz. Or perhaps the perfect ears are those of a microphone? Which one? How sensitive? With ewhat dispersion, with what kind of bandwidth? Even the most perfect recording is by necessity just a cropped, filtered, an edited 'view' of reality containing selective enhancements. Nothing wrong with that, provided that we realize that our own perception IS NOT reality, but merely a useful and partial interpretation of it.

I have grown wearie of reading the black&white cartoonesque audio manifests of those who seem to be wanting to ram facile editions of some kind of Audiophile Pravda down my unwilling gullet. When I really want to hear the 'Truth' I'll find me a Church. . . for the time being, music and the quest for beauty may suffice.
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muralman1
1,527 posts
 
Tvad, I have a Royer's Microphone demonstration disc. It covers the different microphone positions, and their affect on the final sound. Recording is an art in itself.

On solo acoustic instruments, with a uber-resolving system, you can indeed hear the rosin's stickiness, and those faint bow angle tonal tickles. That is what I want to hear, and that is what I have.

Orchestral staging is quite different. I am careful to choose a volume level that is compensatory to the distance between my speakers, 7.5 feet. That puts me on first balcony.
muralman1
1,527 posts
 
Guido, I love your writing style. - read the above post. I have untampered recordings, and I love that. A close miced guitar is wonderful, because most of us have heard guitars up close. As annoying it is to hear the string squeaks you do want to hear the string windings when the player slides his/her fingers along them. When Kottke really gets going, his manipulations of each string and each fret are simply awesome.

People with poor hearing do miss a lot. I know fellows like that. Mids and lows are everything to them. I have that great recording, Windham Hill '84 on now. That is a good one for detail. During one song (on now) the drummer is constantly tickling the high hat. It is a panoply of high frequencies not enjoyed by the hearing challenged.

You know real when you hear it, regardless of your hearing ability. There are clues.
muralman1
1,527 posts
 
Atmasphere, with distortion values you are reporting, playing loud on my 1 ohm speakers must sound like crap. Oddly it doesn't.
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