Anybody hear Murano ICE amps?

I dunno. The class d waveforms are pretty messy. Certainly there's more going on there on top of the 10 khz square wave than 500KHz switching. Of course you can take a look at some of the outputs of very popular tube amps Manley, et. al., and the output of a square wave input is barely recognizable as such. Of course many people love tube amps and more power to 'em. To each his own.

I remember my first decent stereo in the mid 70s - a Yamaha receiver, Yamaha wood base turntable, and Advent speakers. It sounded good or at least I thought so at the time. I had a friend who had the same Advents and a Technics reciever. His system had a good bit more bass than mine. The bass just thumped. He eventually blew the woofer one of his Advents. Looking back I'm sure Technics had done a bass boost at 100 Hz just like you hear in, say, a GM vehicle car stereo. Yeah, it gets your attention but ultimately is annoying and in any case doesn't sound right.

At this point I'm of the mind that I want my amplication to faithfully reproduce for better or worse the source input whatever that may be. And being of that mind, for now I'm sticking with Class A and A/B. A Krell amp for example does a good job of reproducing whatever is put into it. You can clearly see this in testing. There's little ringing and fuzz on the waveforms. Lot more heat and weight I agree but that's ok. I like the way bass sounds on a Krell.

regards, David

Fuzzy looking step response in the popular magazine's measurement chart is due to the way class D amps operate. Class D is a switching amplifier, with switching frequency in 500KHz and up. The fuzzy oscillation you see in the graph is the switching noise. It is much outside the human hearing frequency spectrum. In short, the switching noise does not affect the sound.

Apparently a clean square wave in results in a fuzzy, noisy square wave out (of a Class D amp). I'm thinking this is probably not a good thing.

Mapman - When I bought Rowland 102 I found opinions of others who tested Rowland 102, Bel Canto S300 and PS Audio Trio. My decision was also based on Rowlands reputation and price lower at the time than Bel Canto.

One of reviews of Bel Canto's S300 claims improvement in lower midrange after installation of antivibration cones. Rowland has case made of solid piece (billet) of aluminium - vibration is not very likely.

Dazzdax - Chris, if you read this - how different is your 1000W Icepower from the others?

Elberoth2 I have not heard two ICE amps sounding the same.

-Class D amps are not in their infancy. Our understanding how to implement them is in it's infancy.-

Kijanki,

Can you describe some of the differences you may have heard? Are they subtle or clearly distinct? Do they share anything in common?

I'm very interested in understanding the major differences in sound out there today with this design.

Have you heard the class D amps from Cary? How do these compare?

Don't wait for the rainy day - Icepower doesn't sell to private people (only to approved manufacturers). Minimum quantity is about 1000 pieces (792 pcs for 200ASC).

Modifications to module voids warranty - just wonder if companies have "factory made" mods or they do it on their own and eat cost of warranty repair.

Smallest 200ASC module (100/200W) sounds different in amps from Rowland, Bel Canto and PS Audio.

ICEPower amp circuits are an integrated component from B&O for OEM amp vendors. THis is a pretty earth-shattering and radical departure from the past in the way that electronic amplifier components are built and distributed by suppliers.

Given the same component circuitry, what is left in building a complete amp from an IcePower module to differentiate one amp from another besides cosmetics? Power supply, perhaps?

Maybe I could buy an ICEPower unit and build my own amp? Maybe someone provides a kit at lower cost? I wonder how hard completing the amp given the ICEPower unit to start with could be.

Something to investigate on a rainy day.......

IMO they are no different than any other ICEpower based design.

Garebear: because it is ICE?

Chris

I thought that sound was very cold

Noted that it's $769 per amp so not exactly give away but considering Bel Canto is arround same price for single chassis stereo but with 100 less watts it's not absurd seal but maybe worth throwing down on.But if it;'s not there sonically resale might tke hit.So...
Chazz