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The Hifi Trajectory Of Class D Amplifiers

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I bought my first digital SLR camera back in 2005. Film SLR cameras were still king back then. Longtime film camera hobbyists and pros thumbed their noses at digital. Ten years later, film cameras have been surpassed by digital cameras and are nearly extinct. Millions of people use cameras. The market was already in place for anyone that would advance the technology of digital photography.

With Class D amps, you don't have a marketplace the size of the camera marketplace. There doesn't seem to be enough economic incentive to spend the necessary research dollars to advance the technology to get the same sort of improvement trajectory that digital photography has enjoyed.

Anyone care to speculate how long it will take for Class D amps to consistently rival the best tube, Class A and Class A/B across the board....and do it without resorting to the stratospheric prices that current non-Class D amps are priced at.
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mitch4t

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mitch4t OP
1,613 posts
 
hifi manufacturers can't make the switching frequency technology happen, this can only come from big component manufacturers, like Burr Brown, Analog Devices and such.

George, is this because hifi mfgs pockets aren't deep enough to finance the research to advance the technology?

What's the incentive for Burr Brown, Analog Devices etc to advance the technology of high end Class D? That market is sooo small.

Why wouldn't a guy like Nelson Pass or Bob Carver look into Class D? Are the best brains in hifi amplification stuck on linear amplification? I believe if they put their minds to it, they could advance Class D.
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