Class D vs Class A Education

Inna, wear hemp jeans to offset your wasteful Class A amp.

"- I will get A; unless, perhaps, it's Rowland. "

I am offended. What's wrong with Mark Levinson flagship class D amps (No 53) ?

I also heard the rumor that Smith & Wesson are coming with "ecologically sound" solution

;--)

I have auditioned a few power amps over the last two months looking for the best sound that I can coax out of my Grand Veena speakers.

Here's the list--Bell tubed integrated(1961)..Mac 275 V,
Atma Sphere S30 OTL, Grant Lumley 40 watt EL 34, Art Audio Carissa SET 845, Pass Aleph 3 .

None of the amps outperformed my Red Dragon amps on my speakers.

Comparing the Pass class A amp directly to my D amps--- the Pass had a liitle more control and perhaps bass slam than my current amps, but was a bit more rough around the edges,and didn't have the smoothness on transients and lacked some dimension on cymbals,Perhpas this is a power factor, but my speakers are quite efficient.

In my system,the D amps still are the ones to beat,at least in the price range that I feel comfortable with.

Each amp had it's strengths and weaknesses, I could have lived with any of them if I didn't have the amps I have now.

I just find the sound of my amps seem to have found the right associated gear and sound more balanced, all rounded, than any of the others did.

I should add that I use a tube pre amp(Audio Valve Eclipse)for all my evaluations.
Perhaps my results would be different if I were using a solid state pre.

Not knowing what gear was used at the former D amp dealer ,I am at a loss why he feels D amps are inferior to clas A amps or any other type of amplification.

I pretty much ran the gamut and for the life of me, I couldn't find any amp(cheaper or more expensive)that bettered what I use.

I've had them for about 2 years,(usually the age when I get the urge to look for a "change"for the better)and not for lack of trying, they are staying put.

I know I don't have much D amp experience ,but I've owned a lot of fine amplifiers over the years,and to my ears, the D amps I won have none of the sonic faults that I read so often about.

I can't help but wonder if my amps are really that much better than any other D amps,or if most D amps just aren't as good as mine?

I think as much as anything else, it's about synergy with the rest of one's system, just like any other component in the chain.

The OP asked specifically about design differences in the 2 amps, not which one was 'better'. The latter is impossible to answer, but feel free to state which one you feel is best if you feel like boring the rest of us.

Well if you can read between the lines, you should be able to understand that despite all the different design implimentations(class A, solid state, tube pp, tube set, tube otl) there really weren't night and day differences between any of the amps.

It was obvious to me after doing the comparisons that no one amp was better than what I was enjoying in my current system.

Had one amp of any stripe cleaned the pants off what I use I would have declared it the winner.

But does this mean that class D amps, or specifically my D amps are the best there is ? Of course not, what it does do is illustrate that you can't make generalizations about all D amps having some sort of sonic signiture that is inferior to other types of amp designs.

Boring or not they may be, but these are my experiences ,with my gear in my room.

Synergy really isn't all that hard to accomplish, I think people make way too much of this.

I said I could have lived with any of the amps,so there was synergy with all of them.

Not one amp struck me as being inferior or unlistenable,a high price tag amp wasn't a sure bet for best of show either.
I almost feel Hirschian in admitting that.

Hopefull I haven't bored anyone with this reply, but in all honesty I never said which amp was best, I just said I never found an amp that was better.

Pehaps if I explored the mega dollar amps my findings would be different, but what's the point if I can't afford the price of admission?

I conducted my comparisons with amps that were available to me and that I could afford if one design trumped all others.
Even if that meant coughing up more dough, or spending less than I have invested in my current amps.

So for me, the "design" of the amplifier really wasn't the issue,and it shouldn't be for anyonelse with an open mind and a desire to find out for themselves what all the fuss is about D amps.

Preconceptions about amp designs run wild in this hobby.
Forget about the design, and just focus on what the sound is.

The only way to do that is to compare the amps like I did, not speculate the outcome from your laptop.