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

Coffeey, why would anyone dig up a copy HiFi Plus to see how class D sounds? Listen for youself and listen to the latest generation. Those guys are way behind the curve.

If you don't trust your own ears, then it won't matter what you buy or listen to, will it?

Dave

The bottomline Coffey, is that unless you had the opportunity of listening at some length to at least a couple of well broken in examples of the more well regarded / advanced class D amplifiers on the market today, you won't have any idea if these devices are for you or not. Try a careful listen to at least 2 or more of the following: latest H2O monos, Spectron monos with all the upg, Bel Canto Ref 500 Mk.2, Bel Canto Ref 1000 MK.2, JRDG 312, JRDG Continuum 500, JRDG 501 monos with a PC1 on each monoblock. . . . . In the end, at least you will have formed a reasonably educated opinion. about some significant examples in the current state of the class D art.

I listened plenty long to both Bel Canto and Red Dragon,and guess what at the end it was ugly and unmusical,and frankly made my skin crawl,so dont give me the part about not listening.

Coffey, I empathize with your experience with Red Dragon Leviathan. . . I suspect this device may not be quite representative of the state of the class D art. Conversely, on the subject of Bel Canto. . . it's a brand, not a device. Unless you have auditioned at some length the Mk.2 versions of the Ref 500 or Ref 1000, you may have heard obsolete models that sound to all accounts not quite as refined as the new ones.

Which Bel Canto Coffeey? Even in an otherwise limiting system at this year's RMAF I could hear a lot of promise. Were you comparing to your Counterpoint? Of course Bel Canto isn't near the top of the ICEPower heap, but it shouldn't make your skin crawl.

If your skin crawled with the latest Bel Canto, then I expect that there was something wrong with the system.

What aspects made your skin crawl? That's a pretty broad dismissal, said with a certain degree of authority that would imply that you know what you're talking about, so why not share some details? Maybe, as little as listing the other system components and where the audition took place. Were there any comparisons made? Were the components in balanced mode?

I haven't heard the Red Dragon, but I'd worry about the wooden chassis and sheet metal chassis not delivering the isolation from EMI and RFI that ICEPower needs. Those are pretty expensive units in a very basic looking chassis.

Dave