Time to buy a class D amp?



Will some new class D amplifiers outperforming the current ones appear soon

(the newest ones i know were released a  few years ago)?

Class D amps attract me as I consider them the most ecological ones with obvious non-auditionable benefits.

I have no doubts that they posses the maximum ratio performance/sound quality among the amplifiers of all classes.

At the same time, the sound quality the class D amplifiers that I have auditioned produce, although is quite good,

but not yet ideal (for my taste).


I use PS Audio Stellar S300 amp with PS audio Gain Cell pre/DAC with Thiel CS 3.6 speakers in one of my systems.

The sound is ok (deep bass, clear soundstage) but not perfect (a bit bright and somehow dry, lacking warmness which might be more or less ok for rock but not for jazz music).

I wonder if there are softer sounding class D amps with the same or better details and resolution. Considering two reasonable (as to the budget) choices for test, Red Dragon S500 and Digital Audio Company's

Cherry  2 (or Maraschino monoblocks), did anybody compare these two?



niodari

Showing 1 response by roberttcan

I too, would be interested in your evidence to back up this claim. Of course there are low end class-D amps, i.e. cell phones, low end car stereos, etc. that are "noisy", but in general, class-D and variants of it are very low noise, and if direct digital, very low noise. This is not surprising since it is inherent in their operation. They don't suffer from amplified flicker noise, amplified Schott noise, etc. in the same way that traditional amplifiers do.

I am curious as to what measurement devices you used. Can you provide the make / model and perhaps what firmware version you were using at the time?



clearthink
914 posts
10-21-2019 2:16pm
noble100"Anyone who claims class D amps are noisy has obviously never listened to one"

This is wholly, completely, and utterly false, speculative, and prejudiced not only have some of us "listened' we have also actually "measured" using reliable, repeatable, objective measurement techniques that are recognized by engineers, scientists, and industry as fitting, proper, and appropriate but of course if you are happy with Class D you should absolutely enjoy it but you're reasoning, arguments, and suspicions are unfounded and false.