Is solid state on the brink of extinction?


I am curious how many out there, like me, that have come to the conclusion the age of solid state, and perhaps tube gear, is closing.

In freeing needed cash from my high end audio recently, I was forced to look for a less expensive alternative. To my surprise, the alternative turned out to be an unexpected bonus.

I have notoriously inefficient speakers. I was sure I would have to sell them once I sold off my large solid state blocks.

Going on a tip from another amp killer speaker owner, I bought an Acoustic Reality eAR 2 MKII Class D amp. This tiny amp caused a revolution in sound benefits over my ss mono blocks.

My speakers gained in speed, depth, control, detail, range, clarity, and dynamics.

It didn't stop there. I also sold my front end, and bought a very cheap programmable digital DVD. It also proved to be better that my old disc player. My playback gained in detail, separation, depth, bass control, bass extension, and treble extension. The mids are just plain natural. Reverberation decay occurs evenly and naturally.

Has anyone else had a similar experience of moving from solid state or tubes to digital? What do you see as the future for solid state component producers? What of tube amps?
muralman1

Showing 3 responses by marakanetz

Slappy, I guess you're just pretending not knowing about digital amps.

Class "D" is pulse operated amplifier. Pulse generator with pulse freequency F is usually placed before the output stage that is nothing else as transistors connected as complementary pairs like in class "B" operation i.e. the amplifier is actually solid state. This dictates high efficiency of the output stage, less demand on quality of the output devices, less sophisticated power supplies(theoretically no clipping!)

The downsides are:
very high distortions at low volume levels; some of the models are highly affected with radio freequencies.
Muralman1,
I realy meant no criticizm of the gear rather than simply describing what class "D" means.
To my thought I realy always wondered why SET that can be built by high school student may cost more than powerfull SS beast that could drive near anything even including professional studio speakers and not realy do-able by hobbyist?
Full range digital amps are even more complicated than conventional solid state amplifiers. It's much less complicated to build digital bass amp than full range.