Oh how I wish Class D amps ...

Listening to my Bel Canto ref1000m Icepower monoblocs, I have no idea what that comment on the Spectron website quoted above is talking about or what the basis for the negative description of the sound of other Class D amps is based on.

Must have been put together by the marketing guys......

I agree with others, I can't hear any second order harmonics distortion on my system. I do know what that term means. I have heard all tube systems where their coloration is quite noticeable. Spectron is just tooting it's own horn IMO.

"Dob, I'm confused. I thought that warmth of tubes IS euphonic coloration since tubes enhance even harmonics (artificially added warmth). "

I don't think that BEST tube amplifiers shows artificially added warmth but life-like presentation. What role of even harmonics there I don;t know. I believe that their THD are very, very low and even may be near zero. I repeat, I don;t know why Joule-Electra and Athmasphere, for example, show very realistic sound.... I may not undertsand "why" but I know "what" I hear. Sorry, this is beyond my knowledge.

"Must have been put together by the marketing guys...... "

It could be posted by Satan himself but what its said is "BASED ON PUBLISHED MEASURMENTS...". For more facts, check John Atkinson measurments in Stereophile of different class D amplifiers. If its marketing lie then its marketing lie.

If one likes what one hears then it should be good enough and no defense needed.

Dob,

Gotta disagree.

"In reality this deviation acts as both an annoyance and murky veil. In exchange for euphonic, overly rich harmonic texture (of absolutely artificial origin) the listener gets no transparency and a lower level of true detail"

I hear none of this with my Class D, regardless of whetehr or not the technical details regarding the distortion related apply categorically to all Class Ds or not ( I do not know the answer to this).

Prior to Class D, I had various class A and a/b amps. The Class D is the best transparency and detail and least amount of murkiness of any I have heard and compares to teh best I have heard elsewhere, so that subjective and unsubstantiated statement is not true based on my experiences.

Mapman, if a tube amplifier is fully-differential from input to output, it will not have even-ordered harmonics- they will be canceled at every stage throughout the amplifier. The even orders show up when part of the tube amp is single-ended. With most tube amps, that is the input voltage amplifier.

So when Dob was wondering why our amps don't seem to have any 2nd order coloration, that is why. IOW, its not a universal thing that tubes inherently have that coloration! You can get transistors to do that too if you run them single-ended.