Switch from Parasound JC-1 to Bel Canto Ref 1000?

Seems to me that Ryan's immediate concern may be the amount of heat generated by the Parasound amp during summertime, rather than the sonic return on the investment of upgrading amp vs upgrading speakers. Hence his specific question about the Bel Canto class D monoblock amps.

Until Spring of 2008 I used to run high bias class A/B Rowland 7M monoblock amps. Living in Austin (TX) in a house whose energy efficiency is somewhat in between an afterthought and a pure figment of my home builder's feverish imagination, I could never listen to music between the beginning of May and the end of September as my listening loft turned into a regular sauna.

Since then I have replaced the 7M with class D amplification. I find my class D amps, including the BCs, as musically satisfying as my former 7Ms. . . and as class D amps run essentially almost cool to the touch, I can leave the system running and making music 24/7 even in the middle of Summer. . . The listening room remains (almost) livable even when outside temps surpass the 100F mark. . . . to tell the truth, the 'almost' clause is invariant as to my stereo being on or off. . . my roof insulationcirculation is that poor.

BTW, if your current or future speakers can handle a little less power than the Ref 1000 Mk.2s, you may also have a look at the Ref 500. I have heard unconfirmed reports that they may sound even sweeter than their bigger brothers.

I have the bel canto ref 1000 mkii driving a pair of dynaudio audience 82 and it is wonderful. I live in DFW and replaced my class ab amp with these. Driven at full throttle they truly run cool and offer incredible control. I urge you to try these. So many upsides it's hard to see why anyone disses this technology. This is the future especially when you get a Texas sized electric bill in the summer!!!

So Ryan, whatever happened with this? I am very curious to know if you or anyone has compared the JC-1's with the Bel Canto's (or with Spectron, for that matter).

Review, the listed links and then go listen.

Class D amps seem very hard to make well, so most license the basic blocks and go from there. Not a bad thing if it's really good. Based on pricing, I see some really BAD stuff going on however. The advantages of the design (low cost) relative to the disadvantage (too numerous to list) aren't factored in to the amps price. The prices are well in excess of where they should be for what the product offers.

If they sounded the SAME as a comparative A/B amp, and use FAR LESS expensive materials, where's the price leverage that the size and weight brings to the table for wide-band CLASS D use? I see massive mark-ups and designs that are not comparative on an absolute sense to A/B amplifiers.

Not knowing what CLASS D is all about seems to have allowed the price to escalate to levels the technology and cost should be allied AGAINST (weight and high cost), not for.

From my perspective, the amps are, at a reasonable price, a casual listening product but not yet eclipsing even modest A/B amps in linearity and sound. Is the high price of some of these products (I could name two vendors) done just to "buy" relevance and at the same time, pad the pockets of those selling them?

CLASS D seems to work well for low frequency applications (subs) but suffer many problems with wide band amplification. I'd argue that a good CLASS B amp might be more linear even for subs. I use Velodyne DD10+ subs, so I'm not necessarily accepting CLASS D as better simply based on ownership.

http://www.audioholics.com/education/amplifier-technology/clone-amplifiers

or

http://www.hificritic.com/downloads/Class-D.pdf

or

http://www.audioholics.com/education/amplifier-technology/the-truth-about-digital-class-d-amplifiers

Those articles are from 2-8 years old.

Please listen to Hypex NCore amps if possible, I think that they are superb.

You can build a pair of NC400 mono blocks for < $2000

I have amps using their NC1200 modules with a SMPS.

The times, they are a changin'...