Class A vs. AB vs. D... can you hear a difference?

My experience is limited to an A/B and five switching amplifiers including a Pioneer receiver. Overwhelmingly the switching amps didn't become congested when driven hard and were consistently less fatiguing. After repeated comparisons I concluded they're presentations were simply different and I enjoyed them both.

My class D performance improved greatly with upgraded AC (not conditioned) and attention to cabling synergy, something many detractors fail to confront.

The Pioneer receiver's two prong AC improved the most with my homes AC upgrade. In the two channel system the receiver held its own very well with the mono blocks. And like the monos it likes lots of copper strapped to its terminals. I settled on NuForce speaker cable.

Blanket statements regarding switching amplification are a dime a dozen often made without any set up details. Class D is not plug and play and simply another amplifier choice.

Bill as you can see objectivity can be hard to come by especially when one loses site of the question.

I really enjoy my home theater. It's a 7.1 system in a smallish space with a Pioneer Elite receiver driving sensitive Triangle speakers and two 10" Velodyne DD plus subwoofers.

I've heard some very expensive HT systems that are simply wasted on the quality of much of the media that's available today. In the end it's just TV with a digital source which doesn't even come close to the elegance of analog two channel. Here is were switching amplifiers make sense because they can be constantly powered without wasting tons of volts. I wouldn't stress the THX standard anywhere near as much as getting the extra low frequency right and having the ability to control the ELF on the fly with remote volume and EQ presets.

If you have enough room effective speaker placement rather than depending on drastic room correction usually results in a better presentation.

My system really came into its own when I went to 7.1 and got rid of the dipoles. The transitions from back to front are much more defined even with 5.1 media matrixed to 7.1.

Tim, Please accept my apologies for what appears to be a comment directed at you as that was not my intention.

Without even thinking that my comments were following yours I didn't mean that YOU weren't objective, rather a portion of the thread in general.

Again my apologies.