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The NAD M33 will cancel your complaints about Class D

There are many reasons to like one type of sound over another. Even among what are considered very good amplifiers there’s a broad range of tastes and preferences among audiophiles. Just ask a SET aficionado!

However, no class is more maligned, inappropriately, than Class D. To hear some regulars tell it, Class D sound will thin your blood, make your teeth fall out and ruin your enjoyment of just about everything because it sounds so (fill in a lot of tropes from the 1980’s here).

I’ve been listening to NAD’s prior collaboration with Bruno Putzy and I can tell with some confidence that none of those tired old tropes apply. For reasons related much more to tonal balance than anything else, I’m sticking with Class A/B in my main system, but with the introduction of the next gen Anthem AVR receivers and the NAD M33 I may be making the switch back to class D.

You don’t have to like the M33 or the Anthem’s but can we at least agree that it’s time to retire the old guard of reasons not to buy Class D? Lets lay those poor phantoms to rest.
erik_squires
audition__audio
1,304 posts
 
Class D have come along way but they still dont quite measure up. With the right speakers, nothing equals tube and no tube design equals OTLs.


mapman's avatar
mapman
21,830 posts
 
Class D as commonly done today and OTL are apples/oranges at least technically and in terms of the system they might be used in to sound best. Class D will work well in place of OTL technically but likely still not sound the same. OTL has no chance of replacing Class D categorically.

So realistically you can compare the two and favor one over another but absolute statements in regards to superiority are probably subject to challenge at best.

Now I understand Atmasphere is working on a Class D amp. That would be interesting to see what he comes up with and how it compares both to other Class D amps and his own OTL amps.
dougthebiker
184 posts
 
Check out John Darko’s YouTube on NAD.  He’s not the only one who thinks NAD has had a breakthrough on Class D so it’s finally competitive.

but if you want GREAT sound,  get a pair of Schiit Aegir monoblocks.  Nothing anywhere near the price comes closely.

And they heat your house in winter!
denverfred's avatar
denverfred
252 posts
 
If it’s OK for you, it’s OK with me, but not FOR me. Class D is everywhere and will continue to coexist with the rest of the alphabet. I have some old Emotiva Class D amps in my surround sound system. When I use the room-EQ gadgets on my surround pre-amp, movies, TV and concerts sound pretty darn good--even on YouTube. But there’s a reason why I have another set of electronics for stereo music and critical listening.
It all opens up the question of ’reference’. What is it? Especially for audible art that has been frozen in time by various recording methods? Whatever we listen to, the original sound lasted no more than a few seconds. Yet it’s the only reliable reference I know--live acoustic performance. Let’s admit there’s no reference at all for most of the mediated sound we hear every day. It’s mostly digitized, time-shifted and duplicated to the point that even watching ’live TV’ is really an illusion. The signal has gone through so much electronics that time becomes fungible. Hopefully, a Time Bank will eventually allow us to save, borrow and spend Time as we wish. Just let’s all be careful to maintain some sort of phase integrity!
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
but if you want GREAT sound,  get a pair of Schiit Aegir monoblocks.  Nothing anywhere near the price comes closely.

This is so so correct and almost on the money, except  do the Aegirs bi-amped horizontal (not bridged) as all bridging gives you is more watts everything else that makes for a good amp suffers.

Cheer George
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