MerrillAudio Veritas Reviewed at Dagogo

What's with these prices?

I've been enjoying the unique presentation offered by switching amplifiers beginning with the PS Audio HCA-2 long before Stereophile's bold Class A status review. I'm currently using a pair of nCore 400s which are by far the best sounding switching amplifiers I've owned or auditioned in home.

Strikingly, they are also the least expensive class D amplifiers by a substantial degree. Yes, they're in kit form but the time and cost of assembly and casework is still minimal (mine are actually mounted on a piece maple).

So what am I missing? I think most Hypex fans were somewhat stunned by the dramatic price increase that Hypex was going to charge for their increased power supplied nCore vendor available only units.

Coupled with (I'm assuming) undisclosed innovations or as in the Dagogo review, "attention to detail," and the obvious increase in the cost of exotic casework in both the Merrill Audio and the Mola Mola, (but nowhere near as exotic as JRDGs 3 series) Class D has entered that audio/financial level of questionability sometimes known as diminishing returns.

I'm not complaining about these manufactures right to profits but isn't anybody interested in the unique "details" that are driving the cost or is simply doubling of their output power worth almost quadrupling their price?

["Mapman I suppose once an innovative cost effective product or technology catches on in the high end audio world, it is ripe for a big markup if its performance is competitive with much more expensive gear. Class D amps fit this bill perfectly. I doubt that the much larger potential markets other than "high end audio" will go unserved though, so I think there will be many competitive offerings with excellent performance at a range of price points. Some will be more luxury minded and others more value oriented."]

Absolutely, I agree.

The reviewer mentions the manufactures attention to detail as if some unique changes in design have been made other than the exotic use of anodized aluminum casework. To me that remark smacks of what many switching amplifier manufactures do by simply using of the shelf switching modules and power supplies from manufactures such as Hypex and B&O.

For what its worth, long before the Hypex offshoot Mola Mola actually had a completed prototype they eluded that their amplifier prices would be somewhere in the $5K per mono range.

Again, I'm not complaining, just considering the historical value of previous non proprietary designed class D offerings.