Class D amps that are superior to all or most?
I haven’t heard all the class D so I can’t comment on them all but I can on the Marantz products! I have listened to the PM-10 and the KI Ruby. They are both wonderful amps and have a very nice lifelike and warm sound. I think most people will love them! Having said that I have a PM-11s3, the last of the Marantz Reference A/AB amps sadly. Listening to the PM-11s3 side by side with the Ruby, with both my dealer and friends, the PM-11s3 sounds much better! Not better, but MUCH better. More powerful, more musical, more detailed! We A/B’d the Ruby and the PM-10, and though the PM-10 was much more powerful they sounded very similar musically. So I’d say no! A/AB still sounds better... |
What if I told you there is a Class D amp that retails for $500.00 (made in Sweden), includes shipping and sounds every bit as good as Class D amps that sell for up to $2,500? Well such an amp exists, the Edge A2-300. Some have referred to it as a giant killer. I refer to it as a great find. You ever wonder why some amps sold by different companies are similar in power and quality but vastly vary in price. Mostly because some companies have much more overhead, more debt and expenses, can't pass the savings on to their customers. So shop smart. |
I think you might have a misconception here! Its true that the output filter is affected by the load. But it won't change the FR significantly because of two factors. First, the load affects the Q of the filter. What this means is with lower impedances the filter broadens a bit and is less effective- so you might see bit more of the residual (sine wave at the switching frequency). The second is that in a self oscillating amplifier there is so much feedback that phase shift and the audio passband FR are unaffected. Quite literally there's enough feedback to correct for issues that might arise if the filter is operating at a lower Q.Methinks not. Class D Output filters are load dependent. From TI: The LC filter response also varies with speaker load impedance. The load impedance determines the damping ratio of the output LC filter and is classified as overdamped, critically damped, or underdamped. It is also important to understand the speaker load impedance variations for the application and select the L and C values that suit the expected load variations. Ideally, the LC filter value is selected for a critically damped, flat passband, and phase response. Two considerations when selecting components for the second-order low-pass filter is the cutoff frequency and Q factor or damping ratio. The variations can be small, but they will vary with every load presented. Hence, the perceived sound of the amplifier can vary with each speaker. This Stereophile image of PS Audio's Stellar M-1200 shows it well damped and relatively immune to load variations. https://www.stereophile.com/images/1220PS1200fig01.jpg Ditto this Schiit Aegir https://www.stereophile.com/images/919SchAegirfig01.jpg Not so much this new Mytek Brooklyn AMP+ https://www.stereophile.com/images/421Mytekfig01.jpg Making a purchasing decision based on the written word is folly. Doubly so for fan-boy recommendations. I'm not knocking Class D. I have one driving the woofers in my tri-amp system. |
