I had a Modwright tube preamp with a Bel Canto class D amp----lots of power but I kept getting some noise out of the preamp. Traded them in for a Luxman integrated.
Tube Pre/ Class D Amp - Who has done it?
Open forum for those who have actually tried this. Really curious to know who has been happy, or maybe unhappy, with a tube preamp driving a Class D amplifier?
Of course, tube pre with a solid state amp is a classic pairing for hard to drive speakers, especially ESL's. This is a little different. I'm really curious to know what pres and Class D amps have had great synergy.
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I started with Rouge 7 and Bel Cantos m600’s. The sounds stage was poor, midrange was very laid back. Overall not very good. I decided the Bel Cantos were not my cup of tea. So I replaced them with AGD Audions and everything got better except the sound stage still sounded small and not tube like. So I replaced the Rogue with a Cary SLP 05 ultimate NOS Tubes and now I couldn’t be happier. |
@ghdprentice I've gone through most permutations of Pass Labs amps, Coda amps, and Audio Note integrated amps (SOTO SE and Cobra being my favorite). Current reference is an LTA Microzotl Level 2 preamp as a reference McGary SA1E tube amp. Before that I had a Supratek Cabernet. I use Class D Audio amps in my secondary theater system and even listen to music on them on occasion. I preferred them over the PS Audio M700 which as I stated earlier I greatly disliked. I've had the opportunity to demo the AGD Audion MKIII at Axpona over the course of a couple days and I loved them, but I need to try it in my space first. |
I tried a D-Sonic amp with a Modwright 36.5 preamp. It was a nice amp, crystal clear, excellent for home theater or background music, but sort of lifeless with 2 ch audio. If you're not familiar with it, the Modwright is a fine preamp (imo), but not particularly "tubey". Admittedly, I have been a tube guy for a long time. Maybe it was asking too much - I mean, I gave up on solid state amps because to me, there is no doubt that tube amplification sound more like real music - but it sure would be nice if cl. D were "good enough". It soured me on class D, for now, but I haven't tried any of the newer GAN versions. |
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