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Class A amps or Class D??: Which sounds better??

Amplifier performance and synergy depends on the other components, and cables in a system. I have read alot about the advantages of Class A.amps Though an older amp design, do class A amps necessarily sound better than Class D digital amps like Nu-Force, Bel Canto, and Wyred4Sound?? These class D amps supposedly run more efficiently, with less heat and noise and are smaller in size.

I have a friend who has a Musical Fidelity A3CR power amp and a Bel canto pre-amp, and a pair of Spendor floorstanders. The MF amp is at least 10 years old, and no longer made. I have listened to the amp in his system, and it does sound very good. Most noteably is its across the board smoothness. However, I think its performance is system dependent, and might be a liability in other systems. Would like to hear comments and opinions about these two amp "designs", and if one sounds better than the other, OR JUST DIFFERENT.

BTW, I am not sure that owning a 10 year old amp like the MF A3CR is a good idea, despite its class A rating, and a few positive consumer reviews I have seen. Thank you
sunnyjim
fiddler
581 posts
 
Class D is evolving and if you do a search on the Hypex NCores you will find a significant number of owners who have dropped their high-end amps for the NCores. Several big-name Class A amps that are often mentioned in these forums have fallen to the new NCores.
jdoris
972 posts
 
Sunnyjim: Odyssey's web page is not up to date or comprehensive (my old Dual Mono was never on the site), but this would not make me hesitate. If you are interested, you might give Klaus a call; he generously supports second (and third) owners of his gear. I think all of Klaus' amps are A/B.

John
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,640 posts
 
In the world of musical instrument amps class D has made huge inroads for bass players and also keyboards, because they are a lot lighter.

But to say that they sound better is another thing! Even with the highly inaccurate speakers that are common with music amplifiers, the lack of authority that class D brings to the party is obvious- a good tube amp, class A or AB, can deal a swift blow to class D.

Not surprisingly, in the world of high end audio I hear exactly the same thing. Can't say so much about a class A transistor amp, but if you are talking tubes, it almost seems like there is no contest- the tubes will easily rule the day.

Caveats:
1) the tube and class D amps must be compared on a speaker that is comfortable for both amplifiers.
2) speaker cables are kept short.
spectron
130 posts
 
Hi Athmosphere:

Your caveat #1 negates your point, largely. If its non-OTL
tube amp then if power is needed I HEAR distortions I can't tolerate. So for easily driven speakers when low power is needed I also prefer tube.

For OTL, the power is not a big problem, absense of the output transformer make it (almost) dissapear. The problems with OTL are two fold: they have difficulties to drive low impedance speakers and require high degree of maintance. Otherwise, I am OTL lover and as you know I work with Jud Barber of Joule-Electra because of it !!!!

Regarding your caveat #2, I can't comment because we at Spectron Audio have proprietary speaker cable, we call
"Remote Sense" which negatate effects of imperfect real-life long speaker cables.

All The Best

Simon
needfreestuff's avatar
needfreestuff
572 posts
 
To many variables to give an accurate answer. Lets just give our thanks to the gentleman who keep improving our amps and enjoy the music. They are both winners when put in their proper place. Do we really need a winner? Enjoy
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