Which Class D Amplifier? PS Audio, Ghent, Nord, Merrill or other???

From what I have heard, skip the ICE Module amps.... They are the harsh  ones on the upper frequencies.

I had been using a Parasound A51 A/AB amp which has been a very nice amplifier.  However I was very interested in Class D amps and was considering picking up something in this area as I love the idea of low energy consumption when at idle, higher efficiency and lower operational temperatures.  I was sent one of the new Parasound Zonemaster amps, granted its not being marketed as a high end piece, but at least I could try it against the A51.  I was impressed with all aspects of its performance except for the high frequencies which I found to be somewhat harsh and that is the common complaint with Class D amps which use the off the shelf ICE modules which this amp is.  But for a cheap and easy to pick up amp, it's really quite good and an excellent choice for a kid in college who doesn't want to lug around a beast and get a lot of power for not much money.

Fast forward:  I was further piqued now about Class D and wanted to get into something much more advanced, so I picked up a pair of Anthem Statement M1 Class D mono blocks which run around $7K for the pair.  These babies put out 2000 watts per channel at 4 ohms (my speakers) and all I can say is; holy moly I was blown away at how much better they play than the Class A/AB amp I have been using!   Far more dynamic range, better soundstage and imaging, no high frequency harshness at all, just super clean floor shaking output.  The finals in the amps are liquid cooled via copper heat pipe convection to the cooling fins on the side of the amps and the temperature under full load is never much warmer than ambient room temperature.  They only draw 33 watts at idle and there is no noise at all.   These are super clean sounding and I just love them.  There is no comparison to the Parasound A51 Halo amp, these M1's blow it away in all aspects.   But then again, they are almost twice the price; but I will add well worth it.

As Noble 100 stated in his experience with a quality Class D amp, I fully concur; its the lack of noise, extremely low distortion and amazing detail that struck me right off.  

And since I am such a 'green eco' type, I don't feel guilty with running these mono's for hours on end as they are so efficient.

Here is an interesting point of note:  my Anthem M1's do not come with a schematic which I wanted to read with an engineer friend of mine.  I called Anthem and asked if I could get a copy and they told me no.  They will not supply any schematics to the public, only to authorized service technicians.  I asked why they have this policy and I was told that they invested millions of dollars and years of time developing the M1 design and they consider it proprietary in all respects.  I can understand this philosophy and I don't blame them.

I was interested in how they handled the mitigation of high frequency harshness which inexpensive Class D designs are known to suffer.  The M1 is so smooth that it's uncanny.  And if anyone is interesting in looking online at some of the YouTube videos on it, you'll be quite impressed with the copper heat pipes which are liquid filled (some type of alcohol I am told) which draw the heat through convection currents away from the finals to the heat sinks on the side of the amp.  These amps feel like Capt. Kirk's USS Enterprise to me :)

Arctikdeth, Perhaps you should audition some other D amps before deciding its lacking.  Have you listened to the Anthem M1's?  

As WSHS31a stated, pros seem to have a wide range of experience in this equipment.

My brother is a long time Audio/Video engineer/producer with a lot of experience with home audio gear.  I had not seen him in several years and he came for a visit last summer.  He wanted to hear my M1's fed into my Bryston Signature Model T mains with three subs place around the room in a 270 degree layout. (subs are Axiom/Bryston).   I have around 6000 watts in total here which includes the 4000 watts at 4 ohms (dedicated dual 240V/15 amp feeds) into the main speakers.  My brother was blown away; he used to work with many national bands who would tour at his college and he said my living room which is around 10,000 cu. feet in size sounded better than the live venues he worked.   He loved the Class D M1's.
I am going with his opinion and experience :)

As far as warm up is concerned, I cannot hear any differences in a cold start up vs. the amp having been on for 4 hours... other than Bourbon has taken over and everything in the room is just better.  

I can tell you why my amps are Always turned off after each use:
Lightning strikes!  I turn them off by unplugging from the wall.  At $7K its not worth risking damage.  

I lost my entire sound system/ TV/ Digital readout on my Bridgeport mill, and more due to a strike which came in via the main power supply from the street.   This is the second time I have been hit.  The first came in from the grounding system and took out my well pump.

I know it's almost impossible to find a dealer who has the Anthem M1 mono blocks on hand for a demo, but if you were able to find this one in a thousand dealers, take a listen with your favorite known music... I think you'd buy these.   They are really good and you get all of the benefits of the efficiency.

I had a Parasound Zone Master Class D amp on loan to give an evaluation of.  It uses the ICE Power modules and in that particular case, it did sound better after a long warm up period or as Parasound told me at least a 200 hour break in period.  And although it did sound better, to me it still had a high frequency range harshness which I didn't like.  I removed it from service and put the A51 back in which of course is the Class A/AB amp and it was more pleasing to me.  The zone master did have a noticeable boost in low/mid range and it was a 600 watt per channel vs. 400 watt as in the A51 at 4 ohms.
However, when I installed my Class D Anthem M1 mono blocks, it was hands down no comparison in performance upgrade I heard immediately.  The M1's blew away everything, no harshness at all, better sound stage/imaging and monstrous immense power.  And no warm up needed, they just plain old sound fabulous.  Hey, who could ask for anything more than 2000 watts per channel? 

Speaking of the intrinsic perceived value of heavy amps with big handles, I can see why people like it.  There is nothing like seeing fine CNC machine work with a wonderful anodized finish on metal, especially if it difficult to pick up alone.

My Anthem M1 mono blocks are rack width, fairly deep and only about 1.75 inches tall.  They weight around 25 pounds each, so 50 pounds for the two mono's.  Since I too love the look of  heavy amps and fancy handles; I machined a pair of fancy billet aluminum rack handles which are about 5 or so inches tall and perfectly fit to the heavy 1/2 inch thick front panels of the M1's when the stock 'winged' handles are removed.  The two amps mount into holes machined precisely to match the OEM threaded holes in the panel from the sides at the top and bottom of the rack handles.  So what I have is one amp suspended on top of the other amp with a 2 inch spacing between them for air circulation, vs simply stacking them directly on top of the other.   The amps as so well built that the machine bolts going through the handles into the sides of the amp front panels is all that is needed to fully support one amp free floating over the other.
I did put a rubber 'doughnut' at the back of the amps between them just for additional support for a just in case moment.  But from the front or side view, all you can see is these two gorgeous amps floating behind the rack handles with the heat sinks on the sides... It looks fabulous.  Next I plan on doing something similar with my stock Preamp.   This is all useless superfluous eye candy, it does nothing for the performance or sound.... but probably the same can be said for 150 pound Class AB amps with super thick case work.  I am lucky that I have the equipment to make this stuff myself. 

the two amps stacked with the large rack handles give the pair the look of a large Class A/AB amp, but it's still my wonderful Class D's with all of their efficiency :)  :)   I have the best of both worlds.

I threw my hat into the ring here quite a few pages back suggesting initially that the Anthem M1 be considered for audition as my personal experience is that I like far better than my very well received Parasound A51 Halo, which of course is Class A/AB depending on the output level.

However as with so many other forums online in various other areas of interest, they often degrade into nasty commentary.  I blame the lack of face to face interaction as I don't believe people would speak this way to someone's face in person (there is too much risk of getting punched).

Anyway, I keep it simple, I stop following any threads I don't find are productive any longer and I guess its time to do just that.