2. amps-preamps
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Oh how I wish Class D amps ...

I sure wish manufacturers and designers would move forward as quickly as is possible on improving the current status of Class D amps ... I have heard them all, some in my own system, and they have SO mcu promise !!! Unfortunately they just do not have it down yet. They still sound dry, unmusical, and strange in the treble ... kind of chalky and rolled off, and definitely lacking air.
I long for the day I can get rid of my hundred pound Class AB monster amp, for a nice small cool running amp that sounds just as good. I am worried though that designers and manufacturers have accepted the " It sounds good enough" opinion, and that the B&O Ice power may be a long time before it is "fixed"... sigh.
Just my rant ...
timtim
muralman1
1,527 posts
 
Dob and Athmasphere, your amps sound clean. So do the others. I have used a number of AB amps, and though the builder of such amps will say they have canceled out all distortion, they don't hold a candle to the clarity my ICE amps have.

I found this interesting quote muttered by John Atkinson:

"It's not that they (class D) measure badly, it's because I have to be extremely careful to ensure that I don't end up measuring my test equipment's limitations."

Oh, now that is quite a telling confession.
dob
577 posts
 
"... they don't hold a candle to the clarity my ICE amps have. "

I am sure you are absolutely correct. No one in his right mind would challange your assessment of your own amplifiers.

Athmasphere was just helping me understand why the best tube amps have near zero distortions level. The same philosophy (approach), he described is that of many other companies. I mentioned Spectron statement that based on PUBLISHED measurments distortions are...distortion are...distortions and bad for you...even pleasant for ears as even-order harmonics or ear-piercing odd-order ones.

It has nothing to do with fantastic qulaity of yours and everybody else amplifiers. Somebody mentioned above that sound quality is a function of many parameters and distortions (type and amount) is only one of them. Nothing more.

Peace.
unsound
7,336 posts
 
Dob, interesting. I thought Atmasphere was suggesting that balanced amps have near zero distortion levels.
dob
577 posts
 
"I thought Atmasphere was suggesting that balanced amps have near zero distortion levels. "

yes, but in comparison to the same amplifier configured in the single ended mode...

Also Atmasphere, in other posts, postulated that good sounding amplifier should have no or minimum of odd order harmonics as compared that to the even order ones in the same amplifier, of course.
coxhaus
231 posts
 
I am way over my head here with the techincal issues but I have owned Sonic Fronteirs Power 3 amps with KT88s for years before I switched to Spectron monoblocks. I due love the midrange of the KT88s but I feel the transparency is better in the Spectron class D. The amps both have different sounds and I would never confuse one for the other. There is a certain sparkle with tubes which I feel like I miss with my old tube amps.
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