I enjoy Class D and I'm a tube guy.
The front end of my winter system is a Primaluna Dialogue HP Integrated running either EL34 variants or KT150s. It's just too much heat and electricity for the summer in my dedicated third floor room. I have a roof mounted AC unit that is pretty quiet, which I could crank up but that seems wasteful and I like the changing of system front end every 2 seasons.
In the warmer months, I am running a Schitt Freya tube preamp with an NAD M22 power amp--Class D. I won't belabor things with long explanations about the sound. Instead, I'll just say the Class D "summer rig" is pleasant and isn't the abject, non-musical failure that some would seem to suggest in this Class D and other Class D posts.
As a side note, I'm super curious to see if a Primaluna or similar/better tube preamplifier would be better than the Schitt. The Freya sounds great and only has a few drawbacks to me (i.e. power button on the rear of the unit, volume control intentionally makes clicking noise as you advance it up or down, no 12v trigger out).
I will note that the Schitt/NAD M22 combo sounds way better with vinyl feeding my Manley Chinook than it does with Tidal feeding an NAD M51 DAC. But, I would say the same thing if the Primaluna integrated were swapped in for the Schitt/NAD M22 combo.
The front end of my winter system is a Primaluna Dialogue HP Integrated running either EL34 variants or KT150s. It's just too much heat and electricity for the summer in my dedicated third floor room. I have a roof mounted AC unit that is pretty quiet, which I could crank up but that seems wasteful and I like the changing of system front end every 2 seasons.
In the warmer months, I am running a Schitt Freya tube preamp with an NAD M22 power amp--Class D. I won't belabor things with long explanations about the sound. Instead, I'll just say the Class D "summer rig" is pleasant and isn't the abject, non-musical failure that some would seem to suggest in this Class D and other Class D posts.
As a side note, I'm super curious to see if a Primaluna or similar/better tube preamplifier would be better than the Schitt. The Freya sounds great and only has a few drawbacks to me (i.e. power button on the rear of the unit, volume control intentionally makes clicking noise as you advance it up or down, no 12v trigger out).
I will note that the Schitt/NAD M22 combo sounds way better with vinyl feeding my Manley Chinook than it does with Tidal feeding an NAD M51 DAC. But, I would say the same thing if the Primaluna integrated were swapped in for the Schitt/NAD M22 combo.