Class "D" is a digital amp that has very high efficiency delivering a power with minimal heat dissipation. Many manufacturers now make full-range digital amps such as Cambridge, TacT and others...
Do a search on digital amps and you'll find many standalone amplifiers that are digital. More are coming out. It will be the next big deal in power amplifier design.
technology is John Ulrich at Spectron Audio (formerly co-founder of Infinity). See www.stereotimes.com for a review of the superb Musician II. The MII's are now officially phased out with the Musician 3 and 3D due for release within the next 30 days or so. See the www.spectronaudio.com site for more info.
Class D, that reminds me of when I was selling Hi Fi while going to college in the late 70's. Yes there was the Infinity, the same vintage as their classic FET preamp and Sony also had one, the TAN 88B I believe. I had a couple of those. Great bass was their claim to fame. The Infinity was very smooth by comparison to the Sony, but not too reliable as I recall. We used to use it on the Infinity QLS 1's.
I do not think a class D amp is digital, but it works with a switched power supply, very efficient, running cool and therefor ideally suited to built in a small place like a subwoofer.
The new Class D amps will revolutionize everything due to size & cost.
I think you will still get SOTA performance at higher prices due to parts used and different implementation, but it will allow cost conscience consumer to get better performance for a low price.
S-Phile had or still has the PS Audio unit in ClassA and the performance of a $300 Panasonic unit being touted for performance makes it great days for people wanting excellence without having to buy a unit which cost the equivalent of a fine car.
Things will be interesting from here on out for the receiver crowd thatÂ’s for certain.
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