The Future of Audio Amplification


I have recently paired an Audio Research DS225 Class D amplifier with an Audio Research tube preamplifier (SP8 mkii). I cannot believe how wonderful and lifelike my music sounds. The DS225 replaced an Audio Research SD135 Class AB amplifier. Perhaps the SD135 is just not as good as some of the better quality amps that are out there, but it got me thinking that amazingly wonderful sonance can be achieved with a tubed pre and Class D amp. I have a hunch that as more people experience this combination, it will likely catch on and become the future path of many, if not most audiophile systems. It is interesting that Audio Research has been at the forefront of this development.
distortions
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I think it's pretty safe to say that an amp that makes 10% distortion at 2 watts isn't even hi-fi by the definition of the term.
@kosst_amojan
That is true- do you know of such an amplifier?
To step back into shallower waters here:
So much of our world has become increasingly visual and on-demand. Screens proliferate and dominate.  I can say the under-25 generation, having taught them for 20 years, can be even more capricious visually-reliant than ever, and streaming files has long since replaced object permanence.

And yet music plays as large a part in their lives as it did in ours. In fact, I would say that many teens and 20-somethings have a larger musical palette in their playlists than most of the mixtapes we had.

But the idea of having a "listening room" is a superfluous concept to most Americans, especially the ones with too much month at the end of the money. The idea of assembling a system costing 4 and 5 and 6 figures just for listening to music, especially nowadays, is pretty alien and unsympathetic. And since music has become transient files; since much music is listened to through ear buds and in cars; since Alexa and Siri, Sonos and Spotify, are cropping up in kitchens and living rooms everywhere; and since glittering OLEDs and other screens, including tablets, phones, and laptops, now dominate consumer consciousness, I can understand the aging of the audiophile.
Audiophilia is a niche interest anyway, like any dedicated hobby. And if a soundbar and an Onkyo receiver from Crutchfield or Best Buy is enough for most people, I can't see amplification expanding like it did 30 years ago, especially in America which seems to favor the multi-chassis set-up.
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