Oh how I wish Class D amps ...

I think I have been more than patient with ICE amps, including changing around my interconnects, power cables, speaker cables, even preamps to get the ICE amps to sound better! And tried several ICE amps to boot!

Don't get me wrong - the detail was not poor by any means - it was fairly good overall - but somehow there was something missing on higher frequency transients that created an ever-so-slight digital, plasticky sound.
When I did a comparison between the state-of-the art latest Ice amp (Bel Canto 500m) and a 8 year old Sim Audio Class A/AB amp with zero global feed back - there was simply no contest. Especially at low volume levels I found the Bel Canto would compress and sound anything but audiophile, whereas the SimAudio operating in Class A mode managed to retain most of its nuances, just at quieter levels.

I honestly don't know what else I could have done to bring out the best in the ICE amps. . . if you have a special recipe I sure would be interested to know! :)

Ok, Dan92075, what CD players did you try? On my system all oversamplers failed miserably, especially in their highs. I use a 47 Lab Flatfish transport and a much improved Audio Note DAC. I cannot stress how important that is.

All speaker cables that are not nearly bare will flood the signal with noise. All power cords must be fully insulated against EMI. Saying that, only my speaker cables made the ultimate difference for me. They are ultra thin metal ribbons. I use Speltz ICs because what he says on his site is right on.

None but one solid state preamp will do their best with class D. The rest will diminish the music. Tube preamps do much better. It is a mismatch thing. There is one solid state preamp made especially to match class D, and that is the H2O Fire preamp. That is what I use. It will kick ass the sound into a music that shows flow and big impact.

I can go into great detail, but not here. Drop me an email if you are still interested.

See my friend's comments above.

>>02-20-11: Muralman1
None but one solid state preamp will do their best with class D.<<

That is so lame.

How would you know that only one solid state preamp will work best for everyone?

That is true only for you and you alone.

There are many more experienced and knowledgable listeners/manufacturers/audio engineers/retailers outside of the muralworld.

You need to get out more.

LOL

Audiofeil, you know how low ICE impedance runs. Solid state preamps have great trouble with this. It is not just my opinion that most solid state preamps deteriorate the sound. That is why people use DAC volume, and others line level preamps. Tube preamps are fine.

I had a Musical Fidelity A3CR (Class A Stereophile rated FWIW) prior to the Bel Canto ref1000m monoblocks.

When I first listened to the BC's, the sound was so different from prior that I thought something was wrong. My ears were totally disoriented. We're talking night and day difference in the sound, not just something slightly different.

So these two amps sounded totally different. If you are sold on the sound of one, you will not likely take to the other without adjusting your listening habits along with whatever else. I found I had to adjust my speaker location a bit as well with the BCs in order to best deliver the new, big and well defined soundstage.

After a while I was able to discern a few key differences in the sound.

1) the BC were less hot and quite non-fatiguing in comparison
2) the BCs had a more open and dimensional soundstage which was perhaps the one thing that made most everything else sound different.
3) at first, the bass seemed to be gone with the BCs, then once my ears adjusted to the new soundstageI was able to detect that it was really there in spades and with much improved impact and nuance but again now within a much more open and 3-d soundstage