2. amps-preamps
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I went from Class D to Luxman A/AB - And most of what you think is wrong

Hi everyone,

As most of you know, I’m a fan of Class D. I have lived with ICEPower 250AS based amps for a couple of years. Before that I lived with a pair of Parasound A21s (for HT) and now I’m listening to a Luxman 507ux.


I have some thoughts after long term listening:
  • The tropes of Class D having particularly bad, noticeable Class D qualities are all wrong and have been for years.
  • No one has ever heard my Class D amps and gone: "Oh, wow, Class D, that’s why I hate it."
  • The Luxman is a better amp than my ICEPower modules, which are already pretty old.

I found the Class D a touch warm, powerful, noise free. Blindfolded I cannot tell them apart from the Parasound A21s which are completely linear, and run a touch warm due to high Class A operation, and VERY similar in power output.


The Luxman 507 beats them both, but no amp stands out as nasty sounding or lacking in the ability to be musical and involving.


What the Luxman 507 does better is in the midrange and ends of the spectrum. It is less dark, sweeter in the midrange, and sounds more powerful, almost "louder" in the sense of having more treble and bass. It IS a better amplifier than I had before. Imaging is about the same.


There was one significant operational difference, which others have confirmed. I don't know why this is true, but the Class D amps needed 2-4 days to warm up. The Luxman needs no time at all. I have no rational, engineering explanation for this. After leaving the ICEPower amps off for a weekend, they sounded pretty low fi. Took 2 days to come back. I can come home after work and turn the Luxman on and it sounds great from the first moment.


Please keep this in mind when evaluating.


Best,

E
erik_squires
audiofun
799 posts
 
Tweak1:
You get it.

If someone has “huge” current spikes at 120hz in a linear supply then they suck at power supply design, SMPS’s are miniature radio stations inside your amps. It’s called a PI filter.The guy who owned the H2o amp company understood. My unc has owned the Rowland 8t amps and the model 9’s along with the Rowland 102s amps , don’t even ask.., ok I’ll tell you the 102 S SUCKED! Others? pretty good:)
audiofun
799 posts
 
Can SMPS’s work? As a software and electrical engineer, I would like to think yes. I build power supplies for my internal projects. I want them to be as good as a regulated linear PI filtered supplply but as of today HECK NO! They are RF stations inside your box. 
snopro
386 posts
 
Hi Peter (bigkidz)

Tommy’s Cherry amps are very good not only for being class d but, overall to all classes of amps.
aolmrd1241
1,023 posts
 
noble100 said..."the Element 114 priced at $15K/pair."

The 114 is a stereo amp,not mono.

And I agree... the Veritas monos are a fantastic sounding class d amp.
teo_audio
2,197 posts
 
There was one significant operational difference, which others have confirmed. I don’t know why this is true, but the Class D amps needed 2-4 days to warm up. The Luxman needs no time at all. I have no rational, engineering explanation for this. After leaving the ICEPower amps off for a weekend, they sounded pretty low fi. Took 2 days to come back. I can come home after work and turn the Luxman on and it sounds great from the first moment.

Retaining of the ear. The ear is mutable. Thus the retraining of the ear to deal with class d.

Please, people, the ear and brain combination are a mutable shiftable changeable trainable device. Like the rest of your body, brain and eyes, etc.

Yet, importantly..the Luxman with classic amplifier design, required no time at all to adjust to.

What does this tell you? It tells you that the Luxman is more natural and correctly addressing the ear’s natural function ---all in a way that the ear resolves sound.

The class D amp is a fight to get the brain to ignore it’s follies and have the brain ear combination attempt to find resolution hiding in the noise and distortion pattern that is foreign to how the ear works.

Why would any sensible human being be up for that?

That’s what it tells you. It tells you that the class d ’bear’ can dance in a way that the humans can recognize as being akin to a dance, but really is not a true and actual dance. Just similar. ’the bear looks like it is dancing’, in the same way, ’class d seems to be reproducing a signal’ Kinda sorta maybe. But not quite as good as other, older tech.

As the experience, when properly considered ...so clearly shows--- Class D is not more natural or better. So why fight with it for another 20 years so it can get closer, when you are already there with another technology?

It’s like saying, "I can row my boat across the lake really really well..so now I’m going to cut my arms off and do it with stumps. And I’ll eventually, maybe, somehow.. be good enough to win the Indy 500 of boating. And finally be back to where I was at, before I cut my arms off."  

The logic and thinking is dubious at best and insane at the worst.
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