After a year and a half, I have finally divested myself from a pair of very good sounding Ncore NC1200 Acoustic Imagery Atsahs, but I have not settled in on their final replacement.
The original comparison was between the Class D Atsahs and a Class AB McCormack DNA-2 LAE that I own, which SMc Audio upgraded to their Signature Edition in 2014. The SMc-McCormack is an excellent sounding amp and, in comparison to the Atsahs, simply sounded more "real," primarily due to a better portrayal of spacial cues between musicians, a better sense of venue and perhaps a better ability to portray micro-dynamics. In addition to the upgraded DNA-2 LAE, I also have here a pair of Class A Lamm M1.2 Reference monos and, as of Monday, I will have a pair of Class A Clayton M300 monos. I plan to keep either the Class A Lamms or Claytons, and then decide whether I want to keep the Class AB SMc-McCormack too.
Reviews have been very positive about the Class D NC1200 amps, and I found them to sound quite nice, with standout features being a dense tonality and excellent (although possibly overdamped with some speakers) bass, as well as several very attractive ergonomic characteristics such as small size, low heat, low energy usage, and zero self-noise. Unfortunately, in comparison to the mentioned Class AB and Class A amplifiers, I felt the Class D Atsahs were lacking that last bit of lifelike ambience, as if music is not being played live or by a band in a studio, but rather as individuals cutting their own tracks and then merging the tracks to make the whole.
In my opinion, the reviewer over at Mono and Stereo actually got it mostly right (although too critical), with his review of the Mola Mola Kaluga, where he states,
"The familiar music didn`t sound much familiar through the MOLA MOLAs; in the midrange the voices did not posses enough dose of “human touch” to sound real.
All notes were there but the illusion of musicians standing in front of me wasn’t convincing at all. The music didn’t sound inviting and involving, it was just… there.
The emotional content was missing and the tonal colours were somewhat bleached.
For lovers of analog reproduction and concert goers the sound could also be quite fatiguing and plain boring."
And he concludes with .......
"As for the KALUGA monos…in my view the time has not yet come. Perhaps many people will find them good in what they do and will happily live with them for many years, but it should be pointed out that class-D amps offer a very different sonic perspective from what one hears live OR with good analog amplification, be it tube or solid state - regardless of the amp`s working class. If the sound of KALUGAs would be declared as very lifelike, then I fear we would be sending a wrong message to the audio amplifier industry, not to mention deny the reality. There is just no way one could consider both, the analog and switching amps equally capable of materialising that grand illusion of performers playing and singing in front of us - this is just impossible due to huge differences in sound."
One designer of Class AB amplification once told me, in his opinion, the Class D amps he had heard at that time had been "dynamically challenged." I believe he was talking about that micro-dynamic 0 to 60 thing. Some might call it sounding "overly smooth."
Based on my time with the Class D Atsahs and assuming (from the many positive reviews) that NC1200 is at or near the top of the Class D amplification chain, then the current state of Class D amplification has resulted in amplifiers that can sound very good, and that offer excellent ergonomic attributes, but still do not compete in every way with upper level Class AB or Class A amplifiers with regards to creating a musical whole, or a realistic illusion of performers and venue.
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