Audio Research DS 450 amp......thoughts

"I don't bash DS450 in particular. I bash the principle of class D amplifiers in general."

I'm not sure how anyone can make a statement like that seriously. Everyone is entitled to say whether or not they like a particular amplifier. But to claim that an entire class of amplification is poor is a gross generalization. Audio Research is too well-regarded a company to waste their time, first with the 150.2 and 300.2 amps, and now the entire DSx series, if they don't believe that class D amplifiers can be at least the equal of other types of amps. The same can be said of Mark Levinson (whose newest amp is class D), Rowland, W4S, Bel Canto, Nu Force, and many other manufacturers. It's just become either too easy, or the "in thing" to claim that an amplifier simply doesn't cut it, after all, it's a class D amp. Critique individual amplifiers if you will, but don't generalize.

Let's lower the temperature of this discussion a bit. My objection was simply that if an entire amplifier technology is inferior, I don't understand why a fairly large number of respected manufacturers keep pursuing it.

My own experience is a lot lower-priced than many of yours. Over the years I've owned Quad 303, 405, BGW 250, ARC D90B, and now an ARC 150.2 amplifier. None come anywhere close in price to an $11K (when it was discontinued) ARC VT200. So I have no opinion on how any of the amps I've owned compare to a VT200. If I can make a gross generality of my own, I would expect an $11K amp to outperform any of the roughly $3K amps I've owned. That has nothing to do with technology, just my belief that in general you get what you pay for. From my own experience, all I can say is that I feel the 150.2 drives my Maggie 1.6s better than the D90B did, and paired with an LS17, I enjoy the music. So I would say my own class D experience is positive, within the price parameters of my own equipment.

The original question asked for opinions on the DS450 (the VT200 entered the thread a bit later), and since I haven't heard it, I stayed out of the discussion until the general condemnation of class D came up. Obviously, since I own and enjoy a class D amp, I have a desire to defend the technology to some degree. What I find somewhat contradictory is that a number of reviewers (regardless of whether one likes reviews or not) have been positive about at least some class D amps. I believe the Nuforce amps have been on Stereophile's class A (now that's confusing!) components list, in Soundstage's review of the ARC 150.2 the reviewer specifically recommended it for Maggies, and in TAS, Tom Martin actually purchased his review 300.2. I haven't seen any reviews of the DS450 or DS225; IIRC the review of the DSi200 was positive. Now none of this is definitive in any way, but it suggests that there are at least some who aren't negative about all class D amplifiers.

As a quick aside, my understanding is that Levinson's #53 is a switching amp, and I don't know of any class for switching amplifiers other than "D." I would suggest (without any factual support) that it is precisely the overall negative connotation that some have for class D which is why Levinson argues that their amps are not class D. That may also be why ARC called their 150.2 and 300.2 amps "class T" (after Tripath, the manufacturer of the chip) rather than class D, and I'm not sure what they are calling their DSx series.