Class D and High Efficiency Speakers?

Another thing: Class D amps require the best, cleanest power you can feed them. Some reviews I've read say it's like listening to two different amps, depending on the power cord used, and which, if any, power conditioner it's plugged into.

In the case of the Onkyo, after it broke in, it sounded smooth, but also dead and lifeless with blunted transients and a lack of bloom and fade, similar to when you have too much damping fluid in a tonearm. It turns out it was the power cord, a 12-yr-old Synergistic Research AC Master Coupler. Playing a hunch, I swapped out the SR AC MC for a late model PS Audio XStream Prelude, and voila! All the tubelike nuance, low level detail, instrument resonance and room ambience returned to the musical presentation. I got a second boost in transparency when I bypassed a filtering power strip for a direct connection to the wall.

Thanks for the replies guys. I already have 300B mono blocs, I'm just interested if anyone has implemented a class D amp with high efficiency.

Anyone tried the Bel Canto Ref1000, with high efficiecny?

Low powered tubed amplifiers are a better match for horns than class d amplifiers.

Onkyo, Pioneer, Sansui, and Kenwood notwithstanding.

That's my formed opinion based on experience.

I use the Tripath based Red Wine Audio 30.2 on my Cain Abbys, 95 db. I'm a 300b lover and have several SET amps. In the summer it's tough to keep things cool with all the tubes and this has been great. It has more of the cushioned sound I hear in tubes than some of the other digital amps I've tried. Good luck.

I design speakers specifically intended to work well on low damping factor tube amps, but double-check them on a high damping factor solid state amp (one that has been mentioned in this thread) to make sure I'm not painting myself into a corner.

In my opinion, even when the speaker works well with both types, the low damping factor tube amp sounds better.

Now, if your high-efficiency speakers were designed to be driven by solid state (constant-voltage) amplification, they may sound better with a Class D amp than with your 300Bs.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer