ICE amps need cooling?

Muralman1 - I don't recognize this module. It is probably made by B&O for car market and not the home audio. In addition it is in application that always uses switching power supplies - no linear to compare with.

Yes you'll find switchers in every piece of modern mass market electronics but you'll also find linear supplies there. Should I conclude that linear supplies are not suitable for audio? It is important to understand that class D amp including your H2O is switching mode power supply with varying reference voltage. Do you really thing that B&O would put mass market power supply "not suitable for audio" in their best amps or you believe that good SMPS cannot be designed for audio? Again your H2O is switching power supply.

Switching power supplies have improved over the years as much as class D amps (because it's the same thing). They operate at zero-voltage, zero-current switching with very little noise that is non audible and easy to filter out. Many manufacturers are still sticking to old fashion "no brain needed to design" linear power supply probably believing that switchers are worse but it is really funny that they produce class D amps.

Jeff Rowland switched all his production to class D with switching power supplies. He even uses switchers in preamps and he released only great products in over 20 years. Maybe your audio experience or expectations are higher than mine but if it's good enough for Jeff Rowland is good enough for me.

Kijanki, If it were so funny for amp builders to use analog power supplies. You sure got that backwards. There is nothing that switches in an analog power supply. Nothing. It does not switch. It is like I said. The big caps hold a whole lot of reserve, and the small caps are there to fast feed the module.

B&O makes the A series modules so that talented builders can put their knowledge into improving the product.

Muralman1 - I said it's funny because they think power supply should not switch but the amp itself should - and both of them are the same thing.

On the other hand I don't think they are THAT stupid and have some purpose in mind. The obvious one is that a lot of buyers, like you, still believes in linear power supplies.

If you can come up with any technical reason against using switching power supplies in audio - please let me know.

Here's one. The digital power supply is noisy. My amp builder makes amps of
both modules. The newest module has cut distortion and noise by half. They
gave this module a different designation. There is a built in noise and distortion
filter in the module. It has to be there.

The analog power supply is just that. It operates just like class A in that it
contains all power that the module needs under any load and any loudness. It is
not an amp.

The ICE amp is analog, and not digital. Read their white papers.

Muralman - I don't know how many times I have to repeat that - CLASS D IS SWITCHING POWER SUPPLY. Switching itself does not make class D or SMPS digital. Both of them are exactly the same thing.

There is very little noise in properly designed SMPS (my Rowland 102 has 110dB S/N).
Noise is at non audible frequency
This frequency is easy to filter out (that's why Rowland uses it in preamps instead of linear

AS for linear power supply - it is not class A. Class A is an active regulated supply while linear PS in neither active nor regulated (line and load). It produces 120Hz ripple in-spite of huge number of capacitors. There are good and bad realization of each technology but the fact is that linear one is unregulated.