Which Class D Amplifier? PS Audio, Ghent, Nord, Merrill or other???

Although I haven't personally heard any premium class D amplifiers, I believe that GaN will be a key technology and market driver.

For those of you unaware of GaN (or would rather just listen than geek out!), here's my analogy ... Non GaN transistors aren't as fast as GaN so it's kind of like listening to MP3's at a lower versus higher bit rate.

Personally I believe this is a great development for HEA.  Without getting into the differences between amplifier classes, GaN (at least on paper) should more accurately reproduce wave forms and require less filtering and other processing. With faster transistors we should get better sounding (hopefully great sounding) amps that are cheaper, lighter and more efficient.  Maybe then the ear bud generation will learn to appreciate great sound and expand the market.

To be clear I believe that linear amplification with the proper components will always be better.

Personally I'm anxious to watch the market over the next 18 months.  If the big guys (Yamaha, Marantz ...) start buying/using GaN in greater volumes prices will drop.  This would enable the brands frequently noted here to focus on improving the processing mechanisms for even better sound.

For what it's worth.

Bel Canto Design REF600M and the Black EX.

+1 on the Nord Acoustics, have the NC500 Monoblocks, I'm happy. You can also customize their sound slightly with interchangeable buffer boards and  op-amps. Mine have the Rev C. buffer boards, but I see there is a Rev D. buffer board recently released. It seems like an easy process to swop them out. I like that the amps are "user" upgradeable to a certain degree. Compact, light and runs warm to the touch even after some heavy listening.

Unless you've actually had Monkey Plague, you really can't say much about it.

Hi Everyone and Happy New years,

 

My audio distribution company has been A/B products for many years and a very good client of mine alerted me to very good sounding Class D last year because he said his big reference tube amplifiers had been outperformed by a set of used Class D amplifiers that he purchased as back up amplifiers. This client has great ears, a great system and lots of passion. I laughed because the last Class D amplification I heard, 5 years ago, was real average. But out of curiosity I contacted the Class D manufacture that my client liked and they agreed to sell me a set of amplifiers.

 

At the time my reference mono block amplifiers were $25K and I considered them very musical. After playing and direct A/B testing my reference Class A/B mono blocks over many years, I realized my reference amps did a lot of things really well but certainly, they were not perfect. I received the new Class D mono blocks about 2 weeks later and I had very low expectations after my first experience with the Class D amplification. All I can say is the new Class D amplifiers were not slightly better than my reference mono blocks, they were the next level and fully outperformed my reference amplifiers in every category. When this sort of thing happens, it really makes you question your audio intelligent. I was 100% sure my system was previously reproducing the original soundtracks correctly but with these new Class D amps there was another layer of music. Every song or track sounded new. The separation of the different singers and instruments were much more defined. Live instruments sounded more live and had more decay. Everything I heard at medium volumes could be heard at low volumes. There was more soul in my system but it was based on the amplifiers being more transparent and not injecting their own sound. This was very different than my previous experience with Class D amplification.

 

The main reason I have posted is because we now have 3 different Class D amplifiers that we are testing and another 3 different Class D amplifiers will be delivered to us in the next 3-6 weeks. I can already tell from the first 3 Class D amplifiers, that there are different levels of Class D. For the record when we test new products, we test on 5 very different systems. In this aspect you get 5 different honest opinions, 5 different listening rooms, 5 different types of systems, 5 different environments and lots of different types of music. It really can be fun.

 

At some point I would like to come back and give you our finding but best thing I can say right now is there are different levels of Class D, just like other types of amplifications and you need to decide what level Class D is best for you and your budget. I can say for sure that if you think Class D is not among the best sounding amplifiers in the world, than you have not done your homework or actually listened to current Class D.

 

PS; I have no invested interest in any Class D products as we do not carry any Class D products as of YET!

 

Bob at Worldwide Wholesales.