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The Future of Audio Amplification

I have recently paired an Audio Research DS225 Class D amplifier with an Audio Research tube preamplifier (SP8 mkii). I cannot believe how wonderful and lifelike my music sounds. The DS225 replaced an Audio Research SD135 Class AB amplifier. Perhaps the SD135 is just not as good as some of the better quality amps that are out there, but it got me thinking that amazingly wonderful sonance can be achieved with a tubed pre and Class D amp. I have a hunch that as more people experience this combination, it will likely catch on and become the future path of many, if not most audiophile systems. It is interesting that Audio Research has been at the forefront of this development.
distortions
michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio
1,019 posts
 

LOL, I had to go look up what an E-bike was, isn't that sad, I'm getting old or lazy lol.

As far as A AB or D my favorite would be based on Tuning. That means, parts in a big heavy chassis? Nope, I can beat those up with a low mass amp of any type. Amps that have tons of dampening? Nope I want something I can apply variable tuning to. Amps with shielded transformers? Nope, I like open field designs. There are lot of criteria I have for amps A AB and D isn't one of them.

JA measuring amps means zero to me. I'm more interested in his latest test equipment (JA is a test equipment junky, in a good way).

Distortion? I haven't met anyone from this forum yet that deals with a well rounded view of distortion and the effects of. Lets see would that be effects or affects (wink). Here's a quick example. I walk into a listening room to listen with some guy talking about amp distortion and how he can hear it. Now we're standing in an untuned room and our breathing is at 10dB without anything else happening. He talks and I instantly can hear the room distorting, why and where. No music yet and we're at 55dB. So we turn on the music and I'm hearing all kinds of things happening that can and should be Tuned to give us the best soundstage for that recording, 65-95dB. Then after I do some tuning he's going to want me to tune it differently to his ears.

What am I thinking about his claim to hear the difference in .02 distortion? Excuse me I have to use the bathroom and read my Stereophile :)

Michael


seanheis1
624 posts
 
Amps with distortion in the low .00X% tend to sound very crisp and precise, but cold and analytical.
This is true, but the question is, how did they get that super low decimal? Adding too much feedback to the signal? Probably...
jeffwyo57
12 posts
 
Class D, as soon as your warranty runs out have fun getting somebody to fix it if & when it goes down, with all the surface mount components in new digital amps most techs won't touch them including me, (not wanting to use a magnifying glass or microscope) it becomes garbage or parts. I have one I use for a sub for my TV, but that's it. Very light weight power amps which is great, other than that no thanks, Ill stick to to things I can repair myself.
tweak1
3,658 posts
 
^^^ LOL

Witch hunt

I've owned the for over 10 years, including my SVS subs. NEVER had a problem
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,794 posts
 
Class D, as soon as your warranty runs out have fun getting somebody to fix it if & when it goes down, with all the surface mount components in new digital amps most techs won't touch them including me, (not wanting to use a magnifying glass or microscope) it becomes garbage or parts. I have one I use for a sub for my TV, but that's it. Very light weight power amps which is great, other than that no thanks, Ill stick to to things I can repair myself.

With these, you can:

https://www.amazon.com/Magnifier-SOONHUA-Head-Mounted-Magnifying-Replaceable/dp/B0742CJJM9
Surface mount can easily be done if you have the right tools. Most class D amp use dedicated chips; for example a single chip that includes encoding scheme, high and low side level shifting, driver circuits and dead time circuits. The outputs don't see the same stresses as conventional power transistors because the heating cycles are less extreme and it is heating cycles that ultimately damage power transistors (although conventional devices can handle well over a million heating cycles so its probably moot).
But most class D amps in high end use some sort of module so if one is needing repair, you just replace the module which is much easier than servicing the unit at the board level.
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