verdict on class D amps?

There is a dealer and Apogee speaker restorer extraordinaire near me who has
been courted by Bel Canto, and Spectron. He ran both of their most up to date
amps for long enough to come to the hasty opinion all class D amps must be
poor sounding.

I changed that. I took my entire system, including the speakers, to his place. His
verdict? - the two afformentioned amps, "Do not hold a candle to your
H2O amps."

I can't really blame Bel Canto or Spectron for their bad presentation. Like I said, I
took my whole system. There are those of us who have been experimenting with
ICE amps for years. I have learned a lot in that time. Taking my system showed
the H2O in it's best light.

Muralman1 - It is subjective. What sounds good to you (and him) might not sound good to others (I don't doubt that your gear is great). What is important to me is the bang for the buck that you get with class D. I don't have to have (and cannot afford) the best amplifier in the world, but I always like very good deal. I can also use money to update my speakers.

I'm very surprised that people make, as you said, "hasty" decisions about technology jumping from "poor sounding" to "great sounding" with nothing in between.

When it comes to the passion of most audiophile his or her thoughts and believes are right and all else wrong unfortunately nothing will change there minds. Even when they hear new technology in a component. I've been in these hobby for over 40 years had the same system for 25 plus years. Guess what new technology came along and here i am with yes Class D amps and enjoying music more than ever.

I may have passion mixed up with hard head or other bone headed words.

Muralman1,

Can you tell us more about what preamps were used during the test? In my experience, you can have the highest regarded components and still be able to get poor sound. System synergy is extremely crucial.

In the past, I've auditioned a piece of audio gear in another system. I've then purchased it only to realize that it doesn't sound as good in my system.

I'm extremely satisfied with the current state of my system. It'll be very hard to associate the sound of my system with tubes, solid state, etc. It sounds more like live music, which has always been my goal. I was able to accomplish this quality of sound with the Spectron mono-blocks (with Bybees) and the newly released Joule Electra Marianne Electra Memorial Edition preamp.

Best,

iSanchez