The only one that comes to mind is the hybrid Rogue Audio Sphinx v3. It gets positive reviews everywhere, well except audio science review, but of course. I will have one at some point, just to see what all the hype is about. Herb feels it will become known as a classic, in the same league as the famous NAD integrated. The fact it is all analog with no digital dac or inputs appeals to me. I’d want to keep it seperate. Plus I like that it provides a fixed pre-out to facilitate connecting my still in use cassette deck. It supposedly has a great phono section and dedicated headphone Amp which is said to be very good. The v3 was tweaked to allow more of that tube sound to come through. It also doubles the power into 4 ohms, at least the previous two iterations did. The specs don’t indicate this in the v3, buy I’d expect it is unchanged. Plus, it just looks so damn good. They have not changed its appearance one bit.
Competitive class D amp suggestions
I have been Class D fun since a few years ago when i bought my first class D amp. I like the concept, in general, and all the attractive features of this class of amplifiers. I tried 4 different ones, currently i stayed with one of them that i consider to be the best among all four amps. I do enjoy and like it. At the same time, my 5 watts SET amplifier (with more than 100 times higher distortion according to the specs) gives more natural and (surprisingly) notably cleaner sound (THD of the class D amp is 0.001). The soundstage of the class D amp is not so bad but that of the tube one is still better.
I remain attracted by class D amps though.
Any fresh suggestions on reasonably priced class D amps (i mean excluding non-reasonably priced class D amps, e.g., Merrill amplifiers)?
Any comments on non-reasonably priced class D amps are also welcome (so far i was not able to audition many class D amps and am curious if there are some which could really compete with Class A).
Showing 3 responses by audioguy85
@evank "I have the Rogue Sphinx 3 and with the stock tubes it was very thin sounding. I put in a pair of Mullards and it beefed everything up"
I have not heard the Rogue Sphinx V3, so I can’t say that it is or is not thin sounding with stock tubes. Herb did not mention anything about it sounding thin in his review. Perhaps it depends on what you are pairing it with, source and speakers? It is good to know that you found that it actually responds to tube rolling. That could be some fun. I like the no nonsense look of it, especially in the black. The black makes those knobs pop, plus the graphics are more legible. Herb liked it paired with the Lintons, kef ls50, and the Goldenear BRX. I don’t like that it has increased in price by 200 bucks, but like everything else, it is the norm nowadays. |