Should I steer clear of class D amps

NAD would probably be the only company I would consider a Class D amplifier from.  They have some really innovative hybrid designs and have a huge value for the money.  I used to only buy NAD.  This last time I went back to Class A and Parasound and it is much more musical to my ears.  plenty of reserve power without having to build power creates more dynamics and more realism.  Chances are I will never go back to class D...

A friend of mine bought several mono blocks class D amps to drive his Maggie's.  They were in the Red Dragon class.  He has a Yggdrisal DAC Freya pre amp. He went with Two Vidars. His reason was the class was not as accurate in the high range, mid range because they were harsh in comparison to class AB. There was a velvet tone to voices not found in class D. I noticed this velvet in the mids on my DYI speakers when he was nice and let me try his when I was shopping.  He listens to electric guitar so that was important the upper range is smooth, not biting. The Vidar lacked some slam as mono blocks compared to the class D, but way made up on the low end and over all highs. Your speakers might react differently. I know class D can sound very good. I went the other direction with class AB tube on less demanding speakers.

Stereophile just released a review of the new HiFi Rose GaN Class D integrated that concluded the sound was essentially flawless and the value hard to beat. Not to mention the good looks! Just saying….

I understand Bruno Putzeys, a digital mathematical wizard who worked for Phillips and went on to found Mola Mola  has redefined Class D and is offering AMAZING SQ. Have never heard but many love their mono blocks. Maybe out of your budget however. 17k for 400 WPC.  I have their Tambaqui DAC which is simply incredible. I also just Makua preamp which is Class A and IS the BOMB 

Stereophile’s review of the HiFi Rose GaN Class D integrated and ASR’s positive review of the DIY Nilai500DIY Amplifier make the new breed of Class D sound more interesting.  The DIY Nilai500DIY is something that might be well suited to my garage/outdoor system instead of the big class AB monos I have out there now.

No experience with NAD class d, but I'll throw out a positive recommendation for the hypex amp by ATI I run in my mixed HT/HiFi system. I keep expecting it to be the weak link when I do critical music listening, but it has proven very scalable in my system. Size and running temps were major considerations in my process, but I've been very pleasantly surprised with the musical ability of this amp.

NAD really are exceptional sounding. I have a few different systems that I listen to daily and there’s something magical that the NAD Class D does in comparison. Definitely midrange centric as someone else pointed out but also very accurate, almost analytical. Definitely go amp shopping and see what you like. 

I have a class D Classe amp that sounds anything but sterile or hard. It is very dimensional and detailed. It's a good match for my system and I'm happy with the made for each other pre and power amp. My advice is to ignore the data the reviews or the type. Listen to what sounds best in your price range

Class D amps need a tube preamp or a solid state Class A input stage that adds 2nd order harmonic distortion to the signal. Linear power supplies can also add 2nd order harmonic distortion. 

If you get a stock module from Hypex or Ice Power with the Hypex or Ice Power stock switching power supply...and combine it with a preamp that is adding nothing to the signal path....such as a Benchmark DAC or Benchmark Preamp...you will get that sterile lean Class D sound. 

Class D is sounding much better because brands such as Jeff Rowland have figured out how to add the right distortion amounts to the signal path. I believe Jeff Rowland & PS Audio use old Ice Power modules....so it's not like the modules are necessarily sounding better....but the implementations are definitely becoming more musical.   

It's all about good sound and not what class it's in. In all Class designs there are good and bad sounding amps. You just need to try before you buy.

I had some old class D amps and never stuck with them.  The LSA Voyager GAN 359 wpc that I had modded sounded nothing like my old class D amps.  It was light years better.  I have Pass Labs X250.5 and X150.5 amps, Parasound JC1 monblocks and Ampzilla monoblocks.  The Voyager GAN perhaps gives up a little liw end grunt to my  solid state amps but bests them all on midrange clarity and upper end extension.  They are all excellent amps.  The SS amps have fine midrange clarity and extension as well.  These newer class D amps are not your fathers class D amps.  

I too have owned quite a few class D amps over the decades, including the PS Audio M700s, which were decent but not enough umph for my big room. The 2 that remain are the EVS 1200 dual mono single chassis amp, a Ric Schultz (Tweak Audio) effort based on dual IcePower AS 1200 modules, (same modules as PS Audio uses in their M1200s) but with a ton of his pixie dust sprinkled throughout. I also have a LSA Voyager Gan350 (dual mono GaN fet boards) that I preferred at the time, but when reconfiguring my rack from vertical to horizontal I managed to take out a module and have not yet gotten it fixed, but the 1200 sounds so incredible after a complete cable change that I am quite content, for now

hth

Class D amps need a tube preamp or a solid state Class A input stage that adds 2nd order harmonic distortion to the signal. Linear power supplies can also add 2nd order harmonic distortion. 

These statements are false. I can imagine some amps (regardless of class of operation) for which adding a tube preamp or the like is the band-aid needed for their dryness. But if the amplifier is properly designed it needs nothing of the sort. The second statement is just- wrong.

Late to the party, as usual (sigh).

I bought an NAD 3050 and it arrived a few weeks ago. Sonically, it is much better than my C325 BEE and C356 BEE in "categories."

That is to say, a much better reproduction of the high frequencies, lower distortion, more transparent, etc., etc, etc.

BUT.

I noticed that voices do not sound as "magical" as they do on the C325 (aided by the Center Stage 2Ms). I can’t explain why, but they just don’t. I had recently bought the Critical Mass Center Stage footers, which are pretty dazzling (and I’ve had considerable experience with footers, going back to 1999). On the 325 (with the CD player sitting on the Center Stage 2Ms), singers (and I mean only on well-recorded music) have a "see-into" transparency that lets you know how the singer is marshalling his/her breath to create the sounds. I purposely read a comic book (one of my other intense interests) and found myself looking up - involuntarily - at how say, Cleo Laine (a quite famous British jazz singer) sounded. I’ve had the CD (and lp) for 30 years, and as good as it sounded (recorded live in Carnegie Hall in 1973), her voice never truly sounded "alive" the way it did when I heard her live! Not even on Jadis equipment!

But now, with the Center Stage in the system (underneath the Arcam FMJ CD23 CD player) and the 325 sitting on a Townshend Audio Seismic Vibration Platform, I could hear exceptional vibrato, intake of breath (and even though that can be achieved by having an excess in the 1-5k range, this was not that!) of the kind that happens when a singer sings live. My eyes bugged out, and I’ve had the best equipment (Jadis, VAC, Audio Research, VTL, Goldmund, all top of the line back in the 90s) and her voice never sounded like the way it did on the C325 (WITH THE CENTER STAGE 2MS) even on the VAC or Jadis amps (and the rest of the system was far, far superior, and cost-wise, in the 50k range ( back in 1990). In todays dollars, that same system would cost $135k).

Now, granted, this does not mean the staging, or detail was of the highest quality. Only her voice and John Dankworth’s sax (he’s her husband). The sonics went past mere "sound" quality and into the realm of realism.

So, naturally, when I got the 3050, I swapped out the two amps and listened again. Hmmm...her voice doesn’t have that sound that you would have if you were in the mixing booth listening to her sing. Nah, I thought, it must be that the amp’s not broken in. So, I gave it two weeks and still...no cigar.

I have no idea if this is the chipset in the class D 3050 or what, but I prefer the C325 when it comes to voices. If I was only listening to instruments, I might have missed that particular quality, but since I listen to Ella, Frank, and a whole lot of 50s, 60s and 70s bands and singers, it then became hard to miss.

On the other hand, if I was listening to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, I’m not sure I would have realized the difference between the two amps, so good did the strings sound, the soundstage clearly better with the 3050. But I want "magic" and while the Center Stage 2Ms will take a $600 amp and make it sound closer to a 3k amp (and I’ve had plenty of those), it did NOT do the same thing when I got a second set of the 2ms and put them under the NAD 3050. The 325 won, hands down if voices were involved. You'd have to hear it yourself to understand.

Again, I don’t know if it has anything to to with class D. What I do know is that the 3050 could not best the C325 in the reproduction of voices. That was a surprise, but not exactly: I wondered if the technology (and Nell Gader reviewed it late last year in TAS and loved it) had some kind of weakness on really stellar singers. I could even hear the difference (meaning the Center Stages) on a compilation of a disco era CD. And that on each and every cut. The 3050 sounded quite ordinary.

I’m willing to believe - given it’s a new room - that I might’ve moved a speaker 1/16" too far to the right/left. But clarity and transparency are not the same as "magic".

I sure hope someone else who has the Center Stages tries this experiment: use exceptionally well recorded classical music (I use Mercury Living Presence, Deccas, and RCAs) and then say, Peter, Paul and Mary (Album 1700) or some other very well-recorded singers and finds otherwise.

But the 3050 is going back. It also didn’t help that there is no way to hook up my Nola Thunderbolt subwoofers (I have 2) to the amp. No point in having 2 and only being able to hook up one.

My amp is going to end up being the Aesthetix Mimas, which was my other choice.

I’m sure this is an isolated case where class D and my speakers (Nola Contenders) just are not the motto of the Army: Be All That You Can Be. But there is no magic between speaker and amp in this case. I should point out that Carl, the designer, used tubes with his speakers. But I’ve had 6 different Nolas, and paired them with tube and solid state and it always sounded gorgeous. And voices always sounded true-to-life. Just not this combination.

I’m not advocating against NAD (heaven forefend! I have 4 of their integrateds, all the way back to 2002), or Class D. I am merely appending a warning to hear them in your own system (NOT the dealer’s: YOUR room. YOUR system) and see how it sounds. I’ve not doubt that if Listened to ’80s vinyl or ’90s vinyl (both decades produced the worst vinyl. It would "twang" like a rubber band), I might not have noticed, given how overproduced so many records from those decades are (and one of my jobs was as a DJ back then, so I got a LOT of promotional copies).

Don’t take my word for it. Try it out for yourself. This is just my own experience.

Another option is a teac AP-505 - especially if you like VU metres. class d based on Hypex. 

Teac AP-505

I got a $250 used class D amp, xtz edge a2-300 (they won  a contest for least memorable product name) on ebay and was pleasantly surprised. Given economies of scale, improvements in fets, lower power consumption, and expiring patents, this technology will put enormous pressure on linear amp products, and it will increase market share in serious listeners. I imagine it is ubiquitous in non audiophile systems already for cost reasons.

Any general opinions based on older products are vulnerable to getting out of sync with reality. Mine sure was.

The  only class d amp I’ve had experience wp Is a Nord nc252 (hypex, iI think).  Recently, I’ve been listening to the Fosi V3 chip amp, and have to say, to my ears, it sounds better than the class d amp.  Sweeter,  better dynamics, and more holographic.  I’m excited to see where these amps go in the near future.

My Lyngdorf 3400 is the only class D I’ve ever liked. It’s kinda class D I guess, more like a power DAC. Anyway it’s very natural sounding without the lower treble glare I’ve heard with every other Class D amp I’ve had. Granted it’s also the most expensive.