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Class D is just Dandy!

I thought it was time we had a pro- Class D thread. There's plenty of threads about comparisons, or detractors of Class D.

That's fine, you don't have to like Class D amps, and if you don't please go participate on one of those threads.

For those of us who are very happy and excited about having musical, capable amps that we can afford to keep on 24/7 and don't require large spaces to put them in, this thread is for you.

Please share your experiences with class D amps!
erik_squires
hifidream's avatar
hifidream
134 posts
 
I love my little Benchmark AHB2 amps. They are A/B with class H rails but minimize the distortion to pre-amp levels using feed forward error correction. Ultra small and fast switching power supplies that move the switching out of the range of human hearing. There are a lot of exciting innovations on these. They whip around my Maggies like nobody's business, are crystal clear and are dead quiet even at concert volumes. I don't have to turn them off like my Pass amp. . . 

https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/14680625-the-ahb2-a-radical-approach-to-audio-pow...

https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/131424519-amplifier-crossover-distortion

They have some good videos and articles speaking to their designs if anyone is interested. 

- Steve
boscoebrea
5 posts
 
I have 2 PS Audio D amps,they are good enough for me and I have no problems with better or newer technologies...after all it is the sound that counts...
blang11's avatar
blang11
37 posts
 
@hgeifman I'm in a similar situation. I just purchased the Bel Canto Ref600m monos and will be driving them directly with the PS Audio DirectStream Junior. The DSJ isn't quite the M1 DAC, but I hear they are both similar in the way they present more of an analog sense of ease and lack of digital glare. I'm excited to get my new setup running.  

This setup is an upgrade to my previous pair of Cambridge Azur 851N DAC driving an Audio Research DSi200 which is a class D integrated using a linear analogue power supply. I was actually very happy with the ARC, but it had a passive pre section that couldn't be bypassed to use just the power section. I need a power amp that will allow me to control volume digitally elsewhere in the chain (and perhaps do some DSP/crossover stuff with a DEQX in the future). The ARC amp had awesome drive and really wide soundstage. Everything I read about it online was very positive from 6 Moons, Absolute Sound, etc., but ARC stopped making their class D line. I always wondered why. I can only speculate. It certainly wasn't from poor reviews.



guidocorona
4,298 posts
 

@noble100 @neil_squiresNiel

@neil_squires@neil_squiresand Tim, harmonic distortions lower than 0.005% have already been achieved in class D for a few years. One example is the Mola Mola Kaluga designed by Bruno Putseys using an enhanced NC1200 Ncore modules. THe amp is rated at less than 0.003% across the audible frequency band. The big Rowlands M825 and M925 amps also exceed the 0.005% target, but their price tag makes them somewhat more exotic.


The interesting thing in Gallium Nitride transistors is not so much whether they can in principle enable a high priced class D amp like the panasonic to achieve distortions lower than 0.005%, but if the technology could bring such performance in designs that serve the sub_$10K market, and perhaps one fine day, even below the $5K market.


On the other hand, the audible performance of an amplifier is not created by one particular measurement, nor by a slew of measurements, but by the effect -- iuntellectual and emotional alike -- that the device is capable of having on a listener... Plenty of amps of any class can mesmerize a listener, with a somewhat weaker link to their total declared distortion.  


G.

  


9  

@neil_squires@neil_squires

terryakhan's avatar
terryakhan
109 posts
 
Owned 4 pcs mono Spectron Musician III MKII for the past 8 years driving large planars.
Never powered down and the music out of the planars is puresex.
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