Best Digital Amps

WELL SAID FIDDLER! In this world we all have biases and preferences and are free to make recommendations but when we start using "BEST" then there is always some second guessing going on. I have had my HCA-2 for a while now (always tired of people ripping this amp off) and find that for the money (even without the mods) is extremely musical and powerful (driving a pair of power hungry Martin Logans). All I can say is that as HCA-2 owners, we are very blessed and it is nice to be able to see that digital amps are carving a nice niche in the high end industry today.

Zen (Jason)

President
Martin Logan Club
http://www.martinloganowners.com

Well, we all need to take anything we say with a grain of salt. We can only comment on what we have personally witnessed. I'm always willing to admit I am wrong.

Said that, I still believe the X600 is the best solid state amp on this planet. I never believed it would trump the best tubed amps. They just weren't suitable for my speaker's needs.

As for class D amps, they are new to the field. The first digital amps, early EVOs and TacTs, did nothing to move me away from tubes and solid state.

The HCA2 is a marvelous amp. It has been tested by several members in our Apogee group. Certainly it has opened their eyes to the digital revolution.

Now we are talking about degrees of digital advancement. In my experience, the eAR surpasses all competition in construction, parts, and, to these ears, sound.

Oh yes, the Apogee... yes, the best ;)

These new Cl.D amps are going to give all those that are looking for quality a taste of hiend for under $1K I think.

The best will cost due to parts used,but you will get quality sound for under $1K. I just bought the Panasonic SA-XR45 and cannot beleive the sound I am getting from the unit. Most of the reviewers are not changing out the PC which is a big mistake. Only after that does it sound like a good product rather than a mid-fi piece of junk.

Another drawback is the Binding post and the analog section,but the digital is better than anything I have had in my system for only $300.

Good luck!

For what it's worth, I love my Acoustic Reality eAR Two. I don’t claim that it’s the absolute “best” because that’s an impossible claim. I don’t pretend to have heard every digital amp on the planet, although I did hear the EVO 200.2 and liked it, though not enough to put my money on it. However, the eAR is IMO a truly outstanding amp. Having said that, I had a very long correspondence about a year ago with an owner of an Odyssey Stratos dual-mono who was doing an in-home audition of the eAR Two. He and I swapped much information about our impressions of the amp, but in the end he decided to keep his Stratos because although he thought the eAR was better in some ways, in his mind the improvement wasn’t enough to justify giving up the Stratos. I was happy for the guy that he made the best choice *for himself*. I didn’t froth at the mouth and insist that he was crazy for “dissing” my amp of choice. In the end, we’re just voicing our own opinions on these forums, nothing more. There’s no need to get defensive just because someone doesn’t share your opinion.

Re. Modifying amps.

Given the talk about making modifications to existing amplifiers, this brings up an important point. It’s not intended as a knock against the HCA-2 specifically, but it’s just a fact about the difference between traditional manufacturers versus manufacturers that sell factory-direct. For any given price point, the “bill of materials” or parts cost will almost certainly be greater for a factory-direct component because, unlike the traditional manufacturer, they don’t need to worry about dealer markups. The dealer markup is significant, and can easily double the cost of a component, if not more. Consequently, the factory-direct manufacturer can either charge less or re-invest the savings into design improvements, including (but not limited to) better parts. That’s why manufacturers like Acoustic Reality (and others like VMPS, BPT, Bent Audio, Don Morrison Audio, etc.) have an advantage -- their cost structure allows them to compromise less on basic things like component quality so consequently they can get away with using superior parts while keeping prices reasonable. Finally, since they don’t scrimp on parts quality, you won’t see aftermarket modders fiddling with their innards.