D amps

I absolutely love my AGD Production Gran Vivace GANFET monoblock amps on my Fyne F-703 speakers. I can't imagine that they wouldn't excel on B&W 802s...

My brother tried the Topping amps and they were absolutely horrible. They retailed for around $ 1500.00 and he sent them back for a refund. Granted they were not fully broken in (about 50 hours). Also connections were funky and the build quality didnt inspire confidence. 

I think you will find that the Fyne speakers and B & Ws present very different loads to amplifiers. I dont think this is the best comparison.

I've tried a few of the Class D modules. The earlier Ucd, Hypex Ncore, the older Purifi 1ET400 pretty recently. The only audio brand/designer type I've tried was an Elac Alchemy DPA-2 a few years ago. Actually the Elac was the first "real" class D I tried. It had a warmer tone, black background, & wasn't too bad. It opened my eyes to that Class D was heading in the right direction. 

It was like a $1700 amp that I got for about a grand. There were no reviews about it & I took a chance. It was decent but the top end was lacking vs a  good AB. No extension or sparkle. But it had other qualities that were better than similarly priced AB amps. I didn't use it very long though. 

All the other Class D modules were ok. They have some good qualities. I think they are perfect for home theater. For music, if being real picky, they can be a little 2 dimensional. Lack reverb, decay. Somewhat hard edges to the notes. For the money though I still think they are good. Ultra quiet, transparent as all get out, speed, & the Purifi had great bass. I'd match them with simple circuit no feedback tube preamps for some color. Never kept any of the amps long term. 3 months tops probably. I listen for hours everyday though. 

I honestly bought & tried them just to see if/how they were improving. I haven't tried the new Hypex NcX or the new beastly Purifi's but bought the Hypex Nilai DIY500 a few months ago. Best Class D I've tried yet. Took about 2 weeks before I really started enjoying it. I think it sounds best when I keep it on 24/7. I say it's the best I've had but I haven't tried any class D from popular designers or builders.  The Nilai for the money is great imo. It's not 2 dimensional. It's smoother sounding..less hard edges. Has decay to plucks & cymbals. It just sounds like a proper amplifier to me. Doesn't have the sweetest top end compared to more expensive amps I've had but it's better than any class D I've tried. I like it. 

I've actually been using it daily for the last few months in a streaming system with an Icon Audio LA4 MKiii upgraded tube preamp. I soldered some ODAM caps throughout & use NOS tubes. Beautiful vocals with the Nilai.Black space & depth between instruments. I feel that the Nilai is stupid good for the money.

When I try a Class D amp I have no bias though. I don't go into it thinking it already sucks or try to critically find everything wrong with it. If there is something amiss with the sound I let it come naturally. Most people whom buy amps in these price ranges probably wouldn't even know it's class D if you didn't tell them. 

I heard the new Orchard amp at the Florida show. It sounded like a great amp to me. The Nilai was cheaper & available at the time. The Alpha Audio reviews were pretty positive on the Nilai as well. 

I think Class D will just continue to get better. Especially when more brilliant designers keep working with them. I'd really like to try a few of the ones already out there. Going with a well known & respected class AB amp is still a safer bet though. I guess that depends on your budget. I also think we have people that will never accept or welcome class D. No matter how many other people say they love it.

Very happy with my Atma-Sphere Ganfet monoblocs, currently driving some JA Pulsar 2’s.  They are closer to the Pass labs xa30.8 than to typical Class D’s.  

I own 2 class D amps and love the sound of both with either my Harbeth 30.1s or vintage KEF 103.2s (desktop system):

-- Wyred 4 Sound ST-500 stereo amp (250 WPC). I bought a used one based on a couple positive reviews and a number of positive user comments. I sounded great from the first note, at least as good as any trad SS amps I've had

-- More recently, I picked up a gently used pair of Bel Canto 600M monoblocks. Again, they sounded wonderful from note-1, even a bit more refined than the W4S.

Neither amp has any of that treble hardness people talk about. They both sound exactly right to me, tonally and dynamically.

BTW, I didn't have to deal with burn-in with either amp. But if I bought a new class D amp, I'd burn it in at least 400 -500 hours. Class D amps & DACs are often described as needing epic burn-ins (I certainly found that to be true of DACs).