Looking for 200 watt Amp to drive Dynaudio Heritage speakers

it seems that lack of soul or engagement is a common theme more so than other critiques.

@marco1 I get that- I've experienced that myself. I think that comes from the designer not understanding that just because the amp is high efficiency that they still need to have a really robust power supply. If its not there the amp wimps out when you turn up the volume.

There's more to it than that of course. In exploring class D amps over the last 20 years, my impression is they vary in sound more than the worst to the best tube amps do. That's a pretty wide range.

I've been playing triode class A amps for most of the last 45 years if that's any help in understanding where I'm coming from...

"it seems that lack of soul or engagement is a common theme more so than other critiques"

Everyone describes what they hear based on their own impressions, so I can only speak to my impressions of the Class D Acoustic Imagery Atsah monoblocks, that I owned for over a year. Those amps were built using the very same Hypex NC1200 modules used in the Merrill VERITAS monoblocks, and in Bruno Putzeys’ own Mola Mola Kaluga monoblocks.

As I wrote in these forums in 2021, the Atsah’s sounded, “dry, or at least dry’ish and lacking in that last touch of "realness," which better amplifiers are able to convey.”

A similar impression was conveyed in a review of the Mola Mola Kalugas, where the reviewer for “Mono & Stereo” wrote, “All notes were there but the illusion of musicians standing in front of me wasn`t convincing at all. The music didn`t sound inviting and involving, it was just… there. The emotional content was missing and the tonal colours were somewhat bleached. For lovers of analog reproduction and concert goers the sound could also be quite fatiguing and plain boring."

To me, those impressions are mostly consistent with the current comment,

“lack of soul or engagement."

PS Audio S300.

140W/ch/8 ohms

300W/ch/4 ohms

Class D- not heavy!

I completely disagree with this post and actually find it somewhat amusing, however audio is subjective and is dependent on the listeners ability to listen. 

I find the new GaN amplification rivals tube amps in every way and modern tube amplifiers are actually lacking in comparison. These are my subjective findings. 

 I also don’t  believe you’ll get there with Class D amps  knowing what I’ve recently found after purchasing them myself and what you’re expecting sound wise from your amp despite claims of Class D now sounding like tubes.  They’re close but just don’t sound like tubes imo, particularly el34’s. 

To me, those impressions are mostly consistent with the current comment,

“lack of soul or engagement."

@mitch2 Right- but apparently, only holds true for those examples. They don't represent all class D amps any more than saying something like that represents all class AB amps. And there are plenty of the latter that suffer the same problem and are bright and harsh to boot.

But there are class D amps that are as involving and as musical as the best tube amps, perhaps even better as just pointed out. The ones I'm playing at home are more revealing than the triode OTLs I was playing for years prior but just as engaging so I don't miss the tubes at all.