Class D vs Class A Education

I have auditioned a few power amps over the last two months looking for the best sound that I can coax out of my Grand Veena speakers.

Here's the list--Bell tubed integrated(1961)..Mac 275 V,
Atma Sphere S30 OTL, Grant Lumley 40 watt EL 34, Art Audio Carissa SET 845, Pass Aleph 3 .

None of the amps outperformed my Red Dragon amps on my speakers.

Comparing the Pass class A amp directly to my D amps--- the Pass had a liitle more control and perhaps bass slam than my current amps, but was a bit more rough around the edges,and didn't have the smoothness on transients and lacked some dimension on cymbals,Perhpas this is a power factor, but my speakers are quite efficient.

In my system,the D amps still are the ones to beat,at least in the price range that I feel comfortable with.

Each amp had it's strengths and weaknesses, I could have lived with any of them if I didn't have the amps I have now.

I just find the sound of my amps seem to have found the right associated gear and sound more balanced, all rounded, than any of the others did.

I should add that I use a tube pre amp(Audio Valve Eclipse)for all my evaluations.
Perhaps my results would be different if I were using a solid state pre.

Not knowing what gear was used at the former D amp dealer ,I am at a loss why he feels D amps are inferior to clas A amps or any other type of amplification.

I pretty much ran the gamut and for the life of me, I couldn't find any amp(cheaper or more expensive)that bettered what I use.

I've had them for about 2 years,(usually the age when I get the urge to look for a "change"for the better)and not for lack of trying, they are staying put.

I know I don't have much D amp experience ,but I've owned a lot of fine amplifiers over the years,and to my ears, the D amps I won have none of the sonic faults that I read so often about.

I can't help but wonder if my amps are really that much better than any other D amps,or if most D amps just aren't as good as mine?

Well if you can read between the lines, you should be able to understand that despite all the different design implimentations(class A, solid state, tube pp, tube set, tube otl) there really weren't night and day differences between any of the amps.

It was obvious to me after doing the comparisons that no one amp was better than what I was enjoying in my current system.

Had one amp of any stripe cleaned the pants off what I use I would have declared it the winner.

But does this mean that class D amps, or specifically my D amps are the best there is ? Of course not, what it does do is illustrate that you can't make generalizations about all D amps having some sort of sonic signiture that is inferior to other types of amp designs.

Boring or not they may be, but these are my experiences ,with my gear in my room.

Synergy really isn't all that hard to accomplish, I think people make way too much of this.

I said I could have lived with any of the amps,so there was synergy with all of them.

Not one amp struck me as being inferior or unlistenable,a high price tag amp wasn't a sure bet for best of show either.
I almost feel Hirschian in admitting that.

Hopefull I haven't bored anyone with this reply, but in all honesty I never said which amp was best, I just said I never found an amp that was better.

Pehaps if I explored the mega dollar amps my findings would be different, but what's the point if I can't afford the price of admission?

I conducted my comparisons with amps that were available to me and that I could afford if one design trumped all others.
Even if that meant coughing up more dough, or spending less than I have invested in my current amps.

So for me, the "design" of the amplifier really wasn't the issue,and it shouldn't be for anyonelse with an open mind and a desire to find out for themselves what all the fuss is about D amps.

Preconceptions about amp designs run wild in this hobby.
Forget about the design, and just focus on what the sound is.

The only way to do that is to compare the amps like I did, not speculate the outcome from your laptop.

Ok what class A amps are we talking about, at what prices?
And, what class D amps are we basing our opinions on and at what prices?

I've stated what I use and what they were compared to.

My amps weren't cheap,and they look nice, but that's not why I bought them and have continued to marvel at what they do, especially after comparing them to several other designs at different prices above and below what my amps cost me.

I don't agree that all A amps are great and all D amps are less than great.

The law of averages would have to be that there are some clunkers at all prices in both categories.

Synergy ,who really knows when you have it 100%?

I think all our systems are in a constant state of flux.
The synergy was there when we bought the gear, we just want to fine tune it,not synergize it.

I know what synergy is supposed to mean, and it's another bugaboo term that I try to dismiss.
To me, the ultimate synergy is when the whole becomes one .

When you no longer can tell what component is doing what to the music.
It's a time when you stop looking for the "right" amp to match up with your speakers.

If that's what synergy is, then I guess I am there, but I really don't think I am even close to getting sound that makes you forget you are listening to electronics and electrically reproduced music.

I also dismiss those who say they don't listen to the gear, just the music.

If it wasn't for the gear and the ears"you don't trust" what would this hobby be all about?

Maybe to be a purist music lover, we should all forgo any electronic music reproducing system, forget about going to concerts to give our ears a real sense of what music should sound like, and instead just buy the sheet music, and follow the score and hum along with what we are reading.

I guess I will have to listen to an"uber expensive high wattage Class A" amp to put this one to sleep.

But truth be told, the 1961 20 watt Bell tubed integrated was the marvel of the whole exercise.

Only, however when you know how old a design it is(still uses orig tubes)do you get a feel for how well it performs.

Not hearing it, most would write it off, based on a description of the amp.
Just as most do with D amps, based on what they read.

Not one of the amps stood head and shoulders above the rest, no matter what price or design,synergy or no synergy,they all served the music and did their job.

Yet each amp had a sonic signiture, they didn't all sound the same,but the differences weren't big .

The D amp and the A amps had the best bass control, the PP and SET amps had nice mid range liquid sound,the OTL had a bit of everything and it was the closest to the D amp after the A amp if I had to decide.

It had good bass impact and a nice roundness but not a tubey sound. It was really engaging.
You listened to it, and wanted more.

The old tube pp el34 design had a special magic with drumsticks on cymbals that none of the other amps bettered.But overall clarity was lacking and the bass was too flabby and indistinct.

The A amp ruled the day in bass slam and depth.Drum whacks went thru the floor and bass waves shook the listeneing seat, yet cymbals were harshm strident, the upper rgisters were lacking the three dimensional sound of the tube units.

The SET amp was quite nice, but didn't really do anything to ditinguish itself from any of the other tube amps and they all cost less than it did.
Everything was nice.But not great, just nice, it didn't call attention to itself or any section of the music, maybe it was the most neutral synergistic amp then?
But even if it was the least expensive amp in the comparison(it was the most expensive) I wasn't smitten with it.It didn't move me.
This was one of the reasons the old cheap Bell left such an impression, for most of the same reasons, it also didn't draw attention to itself.

So that brings me to the D amps that I own.
They do as much good and at least as little harm as any of the other amps.
They can draw attention to themselves when bass slam is called for, they have that nice tube like warmth and roundness, they also have that SET see thru mid range,they are well balanced,and can draw you into the music and make you want to listen longer because of their get out of the way character.

Are they perfect?
I know they aren't, that's why I started to look for somethingelse,as I usually change gear every couple of years, the amps were next in line for an upgrade.

But for now ,I am satisfied that they are as good as anything out there class be damned.

Perhaps my interpretation of synergy is a tad harsh, but I also dislike the term neutral.

What is neutral? Todays neutral amp/cable/? is tomorrows coloured one.
Really up to one's experience and personal opinion.
At best you can only say one cable is more neutral than the other, but which cable- ie is the benchmark of neutrality to which all other cables or components can be compared to?
I hope you can try to understand what I am implying.

I think there is nothing wrong with assembling a system that works together well and plays the tunes, but even a smorgasbord type should do that.Careful matching is the best way to go, but what are we really trying to do when we strive for synergy?

We are trying to cover up one deficiency with another, and to me that's just like using different lenses in photography - distort reality but create a pleasing photo.
Much as in photo shop in digital photog.
Reality is not the issue, but "synergy" is.

Synergy to me in the worst case scenario is when you take a bass shy component , match it to fat sounding cables and run everything thru a tube buffer to smooth out all the rough spots.
In doing so, how much reality and truthfulness to the original have you destroyed?
Is a "musical" sounding system, tuned to make all recordings sound pleasant, whether they are good or bad,the pot of gold we are supposed to be chasing after?
I want my system to be able to differentiate between recordings.
The good recordings will sound great, lesser well recorded will sound as they should sound.That's reality, and if that sucks well you know the rest of the saying.

Why blend everything together in a sonic soup called synergy?

Until we can someday have a set of standards that we can make comparisons to, all we have at our disposal are the old guard terminology.