verdict on class D amps?

The Channel Islands are great amps. I prefer the Hypex UCD class D technology over the B&O ICE class D type. I sold a Karan $6k integrated and went with UCD Class D and thoroughly enjoy it with a tube preamp.

I have X250.5 & replaced with Nuforce Ref9SE V2 , it actually sound better than my Passlab in my system. I took my Nuforce to compare with a big Krell, wow my friends were amazed how good they sound in his system. I am looking for a match tube preamp for my Nuforce, I was told on the phone class D amp are just toys by a local audiophile store after 20mins with him, he told me to come to the store and listen to their reference system. And that is what music sounds like. So i took my Nuforce down to him, we sat down and listen to his system, wow it did sound better than my system. Then another 10mins on class D toys lecture, he finally agree to put on my Nuforce. After 10 mins music on cd, we have 2 hrs of music on his Lp collection. He acually apologize for what a hard he was before , that tell you how good it sound in his system.

I love my Gilmore Raptor class D monoblocks. Coupled with a Supratek Chenin preamp and Infinity RSIIb speakers, they sound as good as anything I have heard.

yeekim I've been using nuforce ref 9 amps for more than three years. I have heard every negative comment in the book in that time about class d amps. Yours and the audio store salesmens finding are what most have heard when a true audition is made with class d amps. For this reason those negative comments have diminished drastically as more audiofiles listen to there favorite music with these fine amplifiers. Clean, detailed, powerful, cool operating, unmasked clear sounding amps most certainly have a place in high end audio. There will always be those who will bash anything different/new unfortunately. From my perspective I'm happy for all audiofiles who are satisfied with there choice of gear. Enjoy your music while you can.

I think the technology has improved quite a bit. But it still varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. I had attended a demonstration about 18 months ago at the local dealer with both VTL and NuForce driving a pair of USHER BE-20s. The VTL was hooked up to the speakers first, and they sounded phenomenal. NuForce's reference monoblocks were then put to the task after the break, and I got to sit in the sweet spot. My personal take was that the NuForce exhibited a lot of the undesirable characteristics that everyone had been complaining about digital amps. (At least to my ears)

Moving forward 12 months to RMAF 2008 in Denver. There were a good amount of manufacturers showing off their digital amps. Some still exhibited those undesirable characteristics, but some sounded very promising. One that stood out the most, for me, was Wyred4Sound. I would love to have the opportunity to bring one of their amps home to compare to my Pass X350.5 side by side.

But I think it is safe to say that digital amps, in general, are moving towards the right, and a very promising, direction.

FrankC