I have been selling audio for along time now and we have heard this type of rhetoric before. A few decades back a person buys a cd player and claims to the world that the turntable will now be obsolete, more recently another person bought a streaming device and declared to the world once again the turntable will be obsolete. The names change but the story its still the same. Very seldom do our customers every make a request for a certain class of amplifier, instead their decisions are based on how it sounds with their equipment and room. Class D amps have made themselves known in the huge audio equipment landscape, are they going to make everything else obsolete? History says no. For us the problems we have encountered with class D is reliability and repair
Class D amps seem poised to take over. Then what?
I am certainly biased by my lifetime final amp being a Class D. But I know that after 30+ years of development, Class D seems to be on a high plain. I know there are now many, many companies focusing on Class D and, maybe, a good handful already as good as it gets. My Class D amp is as smooth and beautifully musical as a great tube amp and as punchy and detailed as a great SS amp. I am satisfied and done with my search. A class D amp has effectively taken me off the amp merry-go-round. It’s about time after 50 years. And, for me, this Class D is a milestone. Will all other classes of amps fade away?