ICE Amps for classical music?

Ait - Yippy yi aye!

"""""In my opinion, they are much more the "straight wire with gain" amplifier than any sort of sound-shaper."""""

You couldn't be more right. Yours post is a great example why there are so many opinions of class D amps.

I too use tubes. They are in my non oversampling DAC. Never would I care to run my ICE amps direct. I prefer the romance of tubes, and the frankness of NOS.

Rleff,

Only to a degree. If I turned the control down far enough to get rid of the brightness, it clearly depressed the upper mids to an unacceptable degree.

I've had quite a number of amps on these speakers, and none have exhibited this behavior to this extent. It may be a matter of semantics, but in my opinion it's the amp that needs 'taming', not the speakers.

I don't want to make too much of this. The problem area is where the load is dropping into the 2-4 ohm range. Speakers with a more reasonable impedance curve might well fare much better, so my experience in this regard must be taken with a very large grain of salt.

Further info: I use a tube preamp (AI Modulus 3A) and Shahinian Hawk speakers.
I suppose this is heresy, but I have found tube amps (such as the VAC or Music Reference which I have used) can be just as grating on the nerves as SS amps. I have not found myself closer to the "real sound" with tubes. My Bedini was "mellow" while my VAC was a bit thin. Both had acceptible (to me) soundstaging and transparency. My Plinius, which I now am using, exhibits some warmth and great detail but sounds more "electronic" than the others I mentioned. Especially on violins and high brass at higher volumes, the amp introduces a touch of a sound which I think can best be described as like that of a whistle. It is neither musical nor natural. The feathery satin upper frequency finish of violins en masse is reproduced by the Plinius to a greater degree than any other amp I have tried; but that featheriness is right in the area where the amp sounds most like transistors and voltage rather than
wood and rosin. I am wondering if your experienceswith class D amps have revealed any greater likelihood that I will hear them as more plastic and steel than good class A or A/B ss or valve amps.

Curriem11, I beg to differ. My speakers are the infamous 1 ohm Scintilla. It matters not how loud I listen to them. Right now they are working in the 70 to 80 decibel range. No one else is in the house.

Ait has demonstrated just how temperamental class D amps are. There are all sorts of components manufactured with the seeming idea of screwing up class D. Now, I don't believe that; it's just that it works out.

My amps NEED SCs devoid of dielectric. Conversely, they NEED iron clad PCs. Those are only 2 rules of many.

Muralman,

What are you differing about? I referred specifically to the Wyred 4 Sound amps, I used several different interconnects and power cables of varying design and composition, and the fact is that on my SoundLabs, the amps were bright and the soundstage was collapsed. I can't make the fact that this was my experience - under the stated circumstances - any clearer.

I'm well aware of your gear and of your love for the H2O amps. Everybody who reads this forum is aware of it. Quite honestly, you are starting to sound a little defensive about the technology. Trust me, I have no ulterior motive here.

I have, in fact, asked about user experiences of the Gilmore and H2O amps on the SoundLab owners' forum. No replies yet. I think enough of the potential of the technology that if a pair of H2O Signature monos comes up for sale, I may well buy them. Meanwhile, I'll just enjoy the Ayres, OK?