2. amps-preamps
  3. 165466-4741

Class D for a Tube Lover

First, I'm sure this has been asked many times but searching the subject wasn't too helpful to me.

So apologies in advance.

I enjoy tubed electronics and class A amps, which tend to be a bit warm.  My current Cary 805s warm my small (12x16) music room even in the cool/cold of winter.  I've got other amps that don't produce much heat, but am looking for something that produces no heat.  Living in a home with no central AC the room gets uncomfortably hot during the summer months.

So...I'd like to try some Class D amps.  Stereo or mono is just fine.  And my speakers aren't difficult to drive so I don't need a thousand watts.  But if that thousand watt amp sounds great, I'm not adverse to that, either.

I'd like to keep the price under 2k used.  

Please help.

Thanks.


audiodwebe

Showing 3 responses by atmasphere

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,116 posts
 
@audiodwebe Another way of dealing with heat is to install vents in the ceiling and use ductwork to move the air out of the house. This is often less expensive than air conditioning to install; its certainly less expensive to operate and also makes a lot less noise.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,116 posts
 
While class D may give a clear very low distortion sound, tubes would always add a notable (for me) distortion that ruins class D clean sound. I prefer to use either pure tube setting or pure SS setting as I enjoy both kinds of sounds. Mixing tubes with class D gives some extra warmth but also a notable distortion which, for me, they are not compatible.
Hm. You need to hear better preamps! The way to limit distortion (and colorations) with tubes is not unlike how you would do it with transistors- go fully differential. This keeps the even ordered harmonics down (part of the 'tube' sound) allowing for far more transparency. If you have such a preamp it can work fine with the very transparent class D amps that are now available.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,116 posts
 
There is no class d amp that will sound like a class A or tubed amp, sorry.
The issue here is distortion- it is distortion that causes tube amps to sound 'warm' and 'lush' and its distortion that causes traditional solid state amps to sound 'bright' and 'harsh', especially at higher volumes.

Class D amps do not make the same sort of distortion as traditional solid state. As a result, the generalization in the quote above is false. A class D amp will sound like a tube amp if it makes enough 2nd and 3rd harmonic distortion to mask the higher orders, even if its THD is two orders of magnitude lower than the tube amp to which it is being compared. If there are non-linearities in the encoding process, you do in fact get the lower ordered harmonics as the primary distortion. Just one example...
More to discover