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Time to buy a class D amp?


Will some new class D amplifiers outperforming the current ones appear soon

(the newest ones i know were released a  few years ago)?

Class D amps attract me as I consider them the most ecological ones with obvious non-auditionable benefits.

I have no doubts that they posses the maximum ratio performance/sound quality among the amplifiers of all classes.

At the same time, the sound quality the class D amplifiers that I have auditioned produce, although is quite good,

but not yet ideal (for my taste).


I use PS Audio Stellar S300 amp with PS audio Gain Cell pre/DAC with Thiel CS 3.6 speakers in one of my systems.

The sound is ok (deep bass, clear soundstage) but not perfect (a bit bright and somehow dry, lacking warmness which might be more or less ok for rock but not for jazz music).

I wonder if there are softer sounding class D amps with the same or better details and resolution. Considering two reasonable (as to the budget) choices for test, Red Dragon S500 and Digital Audio Company's

Cherry  2 (or Maraschino monoblocks), did anybody compare these two?



128x128niodari
niodari's avatar
niodari OP
297 posts
 
You may not be disappointing. The design is nice. 
Take into account that Class D wattage is not the same, you may have about the same power as with your ATI (tube 50 watts \approx class ab 
100 watts \approx class D 200 watts). 
nitrobob
238 posts
 
I'm hoping it has warmth. I'm not a bright fan of any sort. I've been told the ATI's were a little on the bright side. Some say neutral. I don't want to go backwards on my taste.Fingers crossed .     
yukio's avatar
yukio
16 posts
 
I use a Lyngdorf SDA2175 class D amplifier which, coupled with a PrimaLuna Prologue 3 preamp, pilot of the Scansonic MB2.5B. The result is excellent
tweak1
3,561 posts
 
I am extra happy with my EVS 1200; dual mono IcePower 600 modules plus lots of intelligent tweaks from Ric Schultz TweakAudio
viber6
2,442 posts
 
nitrobob,
I can’t speak from personal audition, but will just summarize what tweak1 heard and posted. His EVS 1200 is not warm, but detailed and neutral. It is a tweaked version of the IceEdge. The Legacy is likely to sound neutral, although degrees of warmth are up for debate.  Since the ATI 6005 is reportedly neutral, let us know how the tonal character of the Legacy compares to the ATI. Tweak1 had the Audio Alchemy DPA1, which was warm compared to the EVS 1200. He was considering the DPA2, a more powerful version.
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