bel canto and wyred 4 sound

I've tried several class D amps, historically I am class A all the way (to full rated power). My three most current/recent amps have been Krell FPB 300, Levinson 334 and a Pass Alpha (60@8/90@4), all fully class A amps. I have owned a few class A/AB amps but was always a bit disappointed in them in comparison to my class A amps. I found that when the higher power was needed, the A and A/B amps didn't perform as well.

The most interesting thing for me is with my speakers that enjoy more power, I have always felt that class D amps ran out of power, even when rated at 4 times as much, or more power than my class A amps. I think it is similar to how when people say in comparing tubes to SS amps; "how 60 tube watts is like a 100+ SS watts."

That has been my experience with the class D amps, so far. That and I have found that they have not grabbed my heart and sole in the same manner as the class A amps. But I have read several places that the Class D amps with certain speakers are a good match (it was suggested by many that the Bel Canto Ref. 1000 are great with the Wilson W/P's, that has not been my experience at all.) I have heard they are great with the maggies and I am looking forward to trying that combo this week.

I'll say this, I've have been really really impressed with the way the Wyred does brass, just incredible...great blat of the trumpets.

I forgot to mention that I do have Xindak Power Cords for all of my equipment. They appear to be 10 guage (thicker than a garden hose!) These are very nicely constructed cables that would be comparable to $250-$400 power cables.

Ckoffend if you get a chance, try one of the W4S amps or integrated amps. I would be interested to hear if you have the same issues about them running out of steam. With the Maggies, the STI500 has the sense of unlimited clean and clear power. Really amazing.

By the way, looked up some of the amps you mentioned. Both the Krell and Mark Levenson looks like a battleships! I have seen Pass amplifiers and they were the biggest boxes I have ever seen in my life!

I do like the sound of Class A amps and believe they, like tubes, really provide more sound per watt than Class A/B. In addition, I think the W4S is very close to Class A sound (once I update some cables I think that they will take another step up - remember I am currently using a $140 cable and source is a $350 Netgear 9150). As of now, the W4S blows away the Class A/B amps I have listened to, especially at high volumn levels.

Here is my argument for Class D vs Class A:
Cool running!
Unlimited feel of power
Smooth, never harsh
Low power consumption (I leave my amps on ALL the time)
Small footprint (about the size of a preamp)
Better depth than my previous amp
Three dimensional but not yet up to my previous amp running in Class A mode where you feel the performer in the room
A fraction of the cost of a comparable Class A amp (less than 1/3 to 1/10 as much)

Truth be told, if inconvenience was not an issue, I would choose a Tube amp in the 100 watt range over a Class A or Class D amp but after all the issues you have to go through for tubes, I decided it was not worth the trouble.

Ron, I got around to hooking up my Bel Cantos to the little maggies. Initially I just did a quick hook up of the maggies to the HT Receiver (yeah I know, no comment necessary, it's a Pioneer Elite model???). I am not too much into HT, so this is just for my kids.

But the Bel Cantos Ref 1000 seem to sound quite nice with the maggies (which I have not hooked up in my main system yet). I am just running a pre-out from my HT Receive to the Bel Cantos into the maggies. The sound is a notable (unsurprising) improvement vs. the HT receiver driving the maggies. These were cheap speakers and it had been a while since I had run maggies in my house and I figured they would be nice to play around with, especially with the BC amps. I can understand why people like this combo. Though it certainly doesn't compare to the performance of my main system (again, unsurprisingly as none of the other components, cabling, room, etc. compare).

Outside of these notes, I can understand many of your comments on the class A, class A/B, class D and the tube amps. Not sure if I agree with all the comments as I have had a tough time finding anything outside of Class A that has performed as well "in my system". Though having had good tubed amps, I love the sound, hate my continuous concern about the tubes and maintenance insecurities. The sound can be great though.

ALL the ICE amps have more in common than big differences.

has anyone EVER done a 'd' shootout?

FWIW, my 'd' amp, a PSAudio, drives my 1.6 maggies without effort.