"D" amps, general discussion who's 1 and why?

As a relative latecomer to these conversations, it appears that this discussion of oversampling has some history to it. I run a Cary 303/200 into the Spectron. The Cary has an oversampling button, and after playing around with it for a while, I cannot believe how spot on is the language used by Muralman: "the sound closes up, harmonics are lost, proper gradual decay becomes severely truncated." It is as if every instrument has been put through heavy handed gated compression in the studio. All the "natural-ness", for lack of a better word, is removed from the instruments.

However, this being my first experience with oversampling, I attributed it to the CD processor, and not to the amp. Does Class D exaggerate this effect in a way that other amp topologies would not? Whatever the cause, I listen exclusively in non-over-sampled mode now.

I auditioned the Bel Canto Ref 1000 mk2 mono-blocks recently and was absolutely astonished with their performance. Use a product like this with a tube amp of your choice and i think widespread appeal will be found.

Speaking with the dealer i asked him how sales we going. He was very pleased with his sales noting that most customers were trading in their LARGE class A power amplifiers from the likes of Krell, Boulder, Mark Levinson etc for the Bel Cantos. When i asked him why - he said its simple, 1. Class D takes it less real estate, 2. Class D is more efficient and 3. When compared one one one with their existing amps the owners could not discern much difference.

Interesting, and perhaps pause for thought for those that rubbish this class of amplifier.

Jswarncke, the answer is yes, and no. It isn't that class D exaggerates the effects of distortion graters, they unveil the sonic damage that has always been there.

You should hear the cable talk on my system. That is another class D revelation.

Muralman1 said:

"Every over and up sampling player sucks the stage both horizontally and
vertically. Also, all harmonics vanish. The difference is striking. I have had a
Modright tubed Sony SACD here, and with the same negative results.

The tubes do no good in resurrecting the SACD's performance. The digital
filter damages the tube's good qualities."

Thanks for clarifying. Ok, I see where you're coming from, but I disagree. My Playback Designs MPS-5 plays RBCD or SACDs wonderfully while using an upsampling scheme. Many people have now heard the PD and consistantly consider it one of the top players available.

When tubes are suggested to address a digital source problem, I grow suspicious. Generally, I think that tube lovers should stick with all-tube pre/power systems; however, mixing a tube pre with SS power amps, including Class D, can work very well. There's usually a reason that people turn toward tubes and, IME, it's often to offset a weakness in their sources.

Dave

Ghostrider45, I use the Quantum theory because it fits. My speaker cables are extremely thin ribbons. The music signal in all it's fruition slips through without inhibition. We are talking about the very small.

I can use words like, every, always, never, because I am talking about events witnessed on my system. I would be lying otherwise.