When someone tells you it's a $40,000 amp, does it sound better?

@atmasphere I’ve seen any king of while spectrum noise in different D class amps.. never sine wave! higher freq. though! higher switching freq. amps theoretically should be easier to filter noise out, but again, switching frequency generator has the same reference clock generator issues as any DAC, such as phase noise etc., thus can be heard. 

"How many people have actually experienced listening to a $40,000 amplifier” 

I am listening music, not the amp. Amp is just a one piece of sound setup I have selected for my home. my current amp cost  $10k and it is driving pair of $4k speakers. max power I typically use is 10W, amp rated 100W. amp was matched together with speakers, speakers' position, cables, for best time response, decent FR, and to minimize distortions. amp has damping factor of 800, and power BW of 5Hz-300000Hz. 

I am doubt $40k amp has higher value other than prestige, expensive look etc., please provide me model # to check. 

@sns +1

HiFi separate components, manufactured in very small quantities, have to be priced very high to cover huge R&D cost, internal parts cost more in lower quantities, tooling setup cost, ppl training, sales and marketing travel, exhibitions etc. Internal component quality and overall design of my Accupase amp exceed many, significantly more expensive amps, because it was produced in higher quantities. Second amp I have is a class-A custom made, beast with 40 TO3 metal housing bipolar complimentary transistors, and amp has two separate power supplies with 700VA toroid transformers for each ch., practically same as two mono-blocks. Measurements, including max output current, distortions etc are stellar, but I am not using it much because max power I need is about 15W, for my 89db/m sensitivity speakers.

@atmasphere "Honestly no-one can hear that.” sure, if you give me $100,000 budget for output filter alone, I can design output filter with close to  0 Ohm ESR caps and 0 Ohm ESR inductors etc.. :-) 

what about reference sampling clock purity, do we need $20k World clock device for sampling analog input signal to match class-D amp with the rest of audiophile setup?

"if the class D is designed properly the amount of noise it makes on account of its switching can be less than many tube or solid state amplifiers."

not really, please try to hookup the oscilloscope to the class-D amp output while driving speakers at moderate power, and check residual noise..

@larrykell there is a max current limit through the speaker.. I agree, there is advantage of having more output transistors  in parallel to extend output stage linear region and to dissipate heat, which reduces distortions at high power end, but unfortunately that could increase distortions at low power end, <100mW. Also, driving more output stage devices requires to upsize other amp stages..

max current at amp output calculation using total resistance of speaker line (let’s ignore inductive and capacitive Z):

Rtotal= Rprot+Rcable+Rspkrcross+Rspeaker-coil

where:

Rprot: amp speaker protection circuit resistance, relay or MOSFET

Rcable: loop resistance of speaker cable (x2 one wire)

Rspkrcross: speaker crossover resistance, such as inductor ESR, additional freq. EQ resistors - this may way at different speakers used in 2 or 3 way design

Rspeaker-coil: speaker moving coil DC resistance, typ 3/4/5/6 Ohms

all combined, at 40V peak output voltage, gives 10A max current at ~ 4Ohms load

@atmasphere "But to be fair, lots of tube amps can do this too, through”

I wish you (really) good luck matching tube amp with D-class Amp! 

@jumia +1 "Most class D stuff is all about fitting lots of power in a small package."

+at lowest cost