Class D vs Class A


Valvet 3.5 vs Nuforce ref 9 v3se.
Efficient and powerful vs power hungry and sweet consider pairing with Zen Adagios.Considering switch from Nuforce to Valvet will I miss the power?
128x128george99sa

Showing 5 responses by timlub

I have been using a very nicely modified Sumo Nine for the past several years. It is pure Class A factory rated @ 60 to 8 & 120 to 4. Actual after mods it does 90 to 8 & 165 to 4 never leaving Class A. It is driving 4 ohm speakers. I use a Coda CL Preamp. Yesterday I received Abletec Modules, I need to do some testing and am planning to mod those best that I can, so it will be a month or so, but if there is an interest, I'll report the results.
Tim
The only thing that I can see to do to the Albetec boards is to do some bypassing on the power supply, replace the input caps with the best that I can make fit and solder all leads directly to the boards (using Litz).... any other suggestions are appreciated.
Tim
Well, it took a little longer than I suspected, but my Class D amp is up and running.... I don't want to over elaborate right now, the amp has only had a signal on it for 12 ours, but I have to say, I've sat in front of a bunch of amps in my 35 years of being an audiophile. I can't tell yet to just how good this amp is, but I can tell you that class D is no joke. My experience is that you get some improvement after 40 or 50 hours and then again around 300 hours of playing. I'll check back soon,
Tim
Hi Jorge,
By the same experience, I assume that you also bought modules and built your own amp. Which modules are you using?
I listened shortly last evening, I definitely had some minor improvements over the night before.
Hi Jorge,
Thanks for the reply. Dennis's newer series have a great reputation. They will continue to improve, enjoy.
If anyone cares, I purchased Abletec ALC0300-1300, 150 Watt mono boards, they run 150 to 8 and 300 to 4. I couldn't find much on this forum except that DSonic and Marten are using his modules. I went to Italian and German forums where they were more widely discussed, most of those guys said that the 0300 module was the most neutral. It was very affordable and an easy build, so that's why I headed that way. I know that Marten and DSonic both have some flavor of the amp modules above the ones that I purchased.... ALC1000-1300. 550 OR 600 watts to 8 ohms (depending on whose specs) and 1000 watts to 4 ohms and still a very easy build. I believe DSonic uses these modules in the M3-600 mono amps and Marten removed the switching supply and ran this same module on his $45,000 mono amps.... If I get a big enough bug, I'll sell off this amp and buy those....
My amps have been playing since 9am sunday morning, when they get 2 weeks on them, I'll give them a hard listen and report. Until then, I hope the info on these modules is helpful for someone.
Tim