Emotiva XMC-1 owners....

Vernneal,

Have you listened to any of their new products? Or that last mid-fi product you listened to was in 1985 so therefore they are all bad? The quality of mid-fi today will easily top any hi-fi from the early 80's. Easily... You are welcome to come over and listen to my all Mac '80s gear and compare it to a modern Pio receiver (which I don't own but will get for this demo). When I said they were good, the people were asking if they were OK for their system. Should I have told them, "No! If you want to enjoy music you MUST have a Pass Labs amp?" Of course not that would be foolish!

For example. You are using a $500 blu-ray player and a $50 roku for some of your sources. I would never insult them but are the DCS level? No, but I agree they are good.

It does not need to be esoteric or expensive to be good. To think otherwise is to be snobbish.

I'm not even sure where your attack came from. I stated a fact. The "digital amp" in the Kratos is a variation of a class-D amp. They even compare it to one on their web page. Class-D amplifiers amplify a PCM signal exactly what the Kratos does. Exactly the same...

Wow I learned something new. The sub out on the the oppo does not actually control the sub.... Please ignore ignorance...

Yes, it is possible to run the outputs of the oppo to an amp and use the oppo as a pre. However, I'd recommend a good pre/pro with a decent DAC, like pio or onkyo or better. Run the digital out to that pre/pro and enjoy.

Ignore people on here who know "everything" because they don't.

Bacardi,

Congrats. It looks like an interesting concept, a bit of all in box like an integrated amp. What I don't get is this from their web-site.

We remove the DAC, Preamp, and separate amplifier from the signal path. This not only removes hundreds or thousands of parts that cause sonic degradation, but simplifies your system to just two components. The result is substantially lower distortion.

So elimination of components, maybe thousands, should make for a pretty inexpensive component.
Also, the Kratos amp is claiming 100W/ch at 8 ohm. I'd confirm what the 4 ohm rating is because that will really show what type of class-d typology they are using. My guess is that they are using the TDA7498 chip which distorts pretty badly (0.1%) at frequencies above 2K.

Lastly, Core Audio Tech states that in the future the will be able to do DSD on USB input. Thats good, but it will need to be converted to PWM to be amplified. All class D's have this issue so it is not a true DSD signal you are listening to.

I like class D amplifiers and the concept here, but you really need to research and listen to the product before buying.

It is a class D amp. It just isn't converting the analog to digital before the switching controller. It then converts the PWM signal to analog.
They are just calling it something else, but I assure you it is the same technology as a class-D amp.

I think many class-d integrated amps skip the D to A to PWM conversion and amplify the digital signal directly. This is the way of the future.

From the website....

As a PWM, the signal is reclocked, amplified in the digital domain, reclocked again, and then demodulated to drive a speaker directly.

From international rectifier...

A Class D audio amplifier is basically a switch-
ing amplifier or PWM amplifier.

And then from wikipedia...

Home Theatre systems. In particular the economical "home theatre in a box" systems are almost universally equipped with class-D amplifiers. On account of modest performance requirements and straightforward design, [B]direct conversion from digital audio to PWM [/B]without feedback is most common.

I'm sure you will enjoy your Kratos, but it is not new technology. It is quite commonly used. I was just curious what class-D (switching amp) chip they were using because there are only a couple in that power range.

From the website....

As a PWM, the signal is reclocked, amplified in the digital domain, reclocked again, and then demodulated to drive a speaker directly.

From international rectifier...

A Class D audio amplifier is basically a switch-
ing amplifier or PWM amplifier.

And then from wikipedia...

Home Theatre systems. In particular the economical "home theatre in a box" systems are almost universally equipped with class-D amplifiers. On account of modest performance requirements and straightforward design, direct conversion from digital audio to PWM without feedback is most common.

I'm sure you will enjoy your Kratos, but it is not new technology. It is quite commonly used. I was just curious what class-D (switching amp) chip they were using because there are only a couple in that power range.

I concur.... It seems that the linear PS that they are using is quite HQ from what I have read.