class d

"That would sum it up for me. I'm a big SET fan. The only one that has done it for me is the Red Wine Audio 30.2."

That's exactlhy the problem Onemug. . . there is nothing to sum up. Like with every other technology, some class D amps will be of your liking, while others may be just. . . interesting. Some may be 'cheap' as you say, but some other ones are definitely not inexpensive. Yes, a Flying Mole and a few other ones at less than $1K are inexpensive. . . but a Nuforce at $5K? Spectron at about $8K for the stereo config and twice as much for a pair of monoblocks? JRDG Continuum 500 at $8800? or a JRDG 312 at $16K? or a JRDG 301 at $30K?

As you can see, like with SET, there are switching amps for all budgets, and for very diverse requirements. G.

Dpac996, are you sure you are not generalizing a little prematurely? You have owned one switching amp which you did not like, and you're concluding that no switching amps can be of your liking? I have heard several amps that I disliked in class D, classic solid state amps that made me run away from the room, and tubes that put me right to sleep. . . should I conclude that the whole industry is immature and move to butterfly collecting? G.

Guidocorona what's with the 301 mono's and damping factor being so low and to get the watts up there I would need to order the 301's in Par configuration to get 850 watts at 8 ohms and 1150 watts at 4 ohms.

301 mono blocks $30K
8 ohms 400/850 (ser/par)
4 ohms 650/1150 watts (ser/par)
Damping Factor 60

OR

312 stereo $16K
8 ohms 500 watts
4 ohms 1000 watts
Damping Factor 1000


Damping factor seems very low compared to the stereo 312 which is 1000. I was looking into getting a pair of these but I have to say I'm a little concerned wondering if they will have issues driving a heavy load, MBL 101E's and then the price of $30K WOW!. Looking at the power of the 312 Stereo the power in 8 ohms 312 is 500 but when you look at 4 ohms it produces 1000 not much less then the 301 mono blocks at 1150 watts.

Then I look at the Spectron mono blocks, scary power. I have never had any amps in my system with this type of power and only cost $14,400.

Description: Watts per channel, both channels driven
2,400 Watts at 8 Ohms
3,200 Watts at 4 Ohms
5,600 Watts at 2 Ohms
Staggering headroom of 7,000 watts over 500 msec

This is just unbelievable and would totally control my MBL's with no issues.

You seem to have some experience with both product lines so what's your take on this.

I still have the ARC REF3 pre that I would pair up with the Spectron's in Balanced configuration but I would also look into getting say the Einstein and a couple others to compare once they were broken-in.

Ralph Karsten posted a long explanation a while back regarding amplifier specifications with particular attention to power and damping factor.

Bottom line was most buyers place an unnecessary emphasis on damping factor specifications when considering an amplifier.