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Class D Amplification Announcement
After 60 some odd years of disappointment, Class D has finally arrived. As per The Absolute Sound’s Jonathan Valin, the Borrenson-designed Aavik P-580 amp “is the first Class D amplifier I can recommend without the usual reservations. …the P-580 does not have the usual digital-like upper-mid/lower-treble glare or brick wall-like top-octave cut-off that Class D amps of the past have evinced.”
Past designers of Class D and audiophiles, rejoice; Michael Borrenson has finally realized the potential of Class D.
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- 172 posts total
@jjss49 Thanks for mentioning the AGD amps. How would you compare to an all-tube system in general? To be more specific, let's say if someone like the tube sound and has not been satisfied with SS ... should this person consider AGD? P.S. I'm in no way implying that tubes are better than SS or vice versa. But for my personal taste in music, tubes offer something that SS does not. Of course, just the opposite can be true for someone else. |
Coming from being familiar with pro amps, I had some adverse opinions regarding using them for Hi-Fi. Ok for HT, but not Hi-FI. Had class AB most of my life in my stereo setups. Then an opportunity came to test some lightly used MBL N15 Class D monoblock amps. There was a little glare, but they sounded so clean and powerful, with great bass of course, overall significantly better than my ARC Ref 160M (within my setup). Changed my cables from silver to copper and it got better. I took the plunge and bought them. Several months have passed and they have just gotten better. Visiting audiophile friends confirm this, they cannot identify them as a Class D anymore just from listening. Perhaps they needed enough burn-in? I believe the original owner gave up on them too soon. MBL’s LASA technology has been around for a while but it does not seem to get all the merit it deserves. This experience opened my eyes to the progress of class D amp technology. |
+1 For AGD Audions I used to be a die hard SET guy. No more. And now no other amp but the AGD Class D. Compared to any amp IME, AGD is in a class of its own. A GaN based amp but the designer holds several patents from when he was a top exec at Infineon-major European chip company. One patent is for his proprietary, unique GaN module. He describes it as being dedicated to be used in Audio. Compared to other GaN chips designed for use in such things as radar, The result are AGD amps that are superbly like real music. All the best of SS and tubes… to put it mildly. |
@mglik please be specific on what you have compared the AGD amps to? Merrill? Atmasphere? Others? Thanks |
- 172 posts total