Technics SU-R1000 - Good but not the king of switching amps
Was looking at the measurements for the Technics SU-R1000 Integrated published by Stereophile. I never bother with the reviews of the sound quality as there’s 1 reviewer there whose ears I trust and it’s not this reviewer.
To be clear, this IS a digital amplifier, and is not a Class D amplifier. Atmasphere will always disagree with me, but given Technics nomenclature and the use of an A/D converter, and PWM output I think if any amplifier qualifies as digital this one does.
What I find kind of interesting here is that the measurements are OK but not absolute Class D killing results. I am particularly unimpressed by the performance of the impedance compensation circuit, LAPC, which at the end of the day does not seem to have performed significantly better than actual, non GaNFET amplifiers, particularly in removing the effects of the output filters Class D amps require. I really hoped to see a huge win here... but it’s not. It’s just making the PWM perform almost as good as a true Class D amplifier.
I have not heard this integrated, but the claims and expectations laid out for the technology seem to not be proven in the measurements. This is a very expensive integrated that does everything differently, and measures about the same as previous generation, also excellent sounding, Class D engines I’ve seen measured.
My stance that Class D was already very good and that new, faster switching amps would have to be truly spectacularly better to unseat them remains, in my mind, uncontested.
Can’t wait to see everyone trashing Class D on the measurements suddenly decide that this amp should be heard and not measured.
At least with switching amps, I have to agree with you, @Mapman This amp brought with it a kitchen sink worth of new stuff. It also has meters, as god intended, but the very technical expectations I had for it's performance have been dashed. I never expected it to sound much better, but I did expect it would measure better. |
Well, I should have said, it's a solution for switching amps. And you are right, I think that most Class D amps don't need it. I mean, yeah, you could tweak things, but I don't think it's necessary. On the other hand, if this amp is a DSP driven, zero output feedback design then this impedance compensation might be attempting to correct problems unique to this specific topology. |
Yes, this is true, but it’s also true that these amps do have a lot of innovation in them. VERY different technical solutions to technical issues around Class D. I was actually really hoping to see these amps just be stellar technical performers, like Halcro of Analog. I also completely agree that the real proof of a technology is in the listening. :) |
There have been plenty of great switching amps before the Technics, and there will be more long after, so I'm not really surprised listeners like it. :)
I'm more curious about all the technical expectations which IMHO haven't really been met here. It was expected the extremely elevated switching speed would raise the performance for switching amps. It seems, based on measurements, it's not better, just as good. |
Not according to the measurements, it's 100 Ohms. Still relatively high, but sadly not uncommon in an integrated. Perhaps you are confusing it with the preamp outputs which are ~ 700 ? A fine measurement there.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/technics-su-r1000-integrated-amplifier-measurements |
Depends how you define it. Lots of Class D can handle low (~ 2 Ohm) loads, but response with simulated speaker loads (as opposed to simple resistors) usually shows them to behave a little differently. That's what I was focusing on, but maybe wasn't saying it quite well.
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I'm also not really interested in ASR blessing an amp or not.
The results, at least measurably, were meh. After all that hype you end up with a switching amp which measures sometimes as good as, sometimes worse than 2 or 3 generation old Class D. And I am a fan of these Class D designs, I just wanted to see something spectacularly better. |
