High End Amp Price Collapse musings

MHO...

Class D has already surpassed all else in terms of 'units in service', if you count cell phones and any portable digital device.  As for the quality, it'll turn on demand.  What with the rise of headphones and ear buds, that is what will ultimately 'push' the market's response.  'Home theater' will benefit from that, and will add to that demand.  Smaller, more powerful, better response will prevail.  All else will eventually become 'niche' or 'vintage', which is already occurring.

Digital will win, analog will fade, becoming the 'start' but not the end product.
'Analog' will be what you experience at a live venue, instantly becoming digital with the means of amplifying it or recording/reproducing it.  Is mostly thus already...

'Flat panel' speakers are another subject we can dis about and over...  DML's are beginning to be less laughable already.  Why would someone want an ugly or even stylish 'monkey box' cluttering up their already small living space when they could have this 'picture' like object hanging on the wall that sounds great 'enough' and a subwoofer is the coffee table?

As J. Lennon suggested, "The war is over."  The new will replace the old over time, as it always has.

Unless you'd like to get rid of that nice UHD flat panel TV you've got, and go back to CRT's, I'll suggest that y'all get used to the future.  It's here already, becoming the past as we sit and bitch about 'change' and how we may not like it...

Or, to be really crass about it....it's 'vintage' already.  Get Over It.

 The new will replace the old over time, as it always has.

Yes, we are all going to die, we get it.

Technological "advances" are nothing new with Class D amps.
I'm in my mid 50's, with children in their mid 20's to early 30's.
Despite all of the new ways to communicate that weren't around when I was their age, internet , smart phones, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc., etc., they still struggle to communicate on a human level. They seem to lack negotiating, haggling, bartering, and just general bull-sh!tting skills.
Yet they are not inferior to my generation, nor better.

I would not say that my children's lives are any better than mine, just as my life is no better than my children's, my father or grandfathers.
Newer is not better or worse, only different.

If you enjoy Class D amps, that's terrific!
If you enjoy SET amps, that's super!
If you enjoy Class A, A/B, G, H, etc., that's awesome!
If you enjoy vinyl, digital, computer, that's fabulous!

The main goal in this hobby is that you are enjoying music.
Whatever "tool" helps you to enjoy the music more is a good thing, no?

Cheers,
John

"Future generations will look at amps that are not class d or digital as dinosaur fossils . There will be no mass market makers of class A or ab or anyone to service them . I don't think I will be around when this happens but class A , AB inevitably will disappear ."

You mean those generations that prefer music from their iPhone in the form of compressed mp3's, or God forbid streaming from their "Alexa" eavesdropping device?  LOL

Eventually we will probably stream digital directly into our neural implant, but somewhere there will still be vacuum tubes glowing as life forms listen to the latest hit from the andromeda galaxies latest super-group, Faith +1.  

jimman2

You did not read my post.  My Bryston 14b SST was bought new in 2009 and had the lowest noise floor of any amp I have heard, and measured.  My noise floor on the Luxmans I have is negligible (think modern low) and distortion nonexistent.  AGE DOES NOT MEAN A THING.  Circuit topology and implementation are everything (including parts quality).  Moreover, your $3000 NAD, new is about what the going price for one of my 30+ year old amps is about these days, condition considered.  Moreover, although you might be impressed, it is your perception that gives your opinion.  I have heard current amps at $10k that do not touch the amps I have, and even better, since age is considered, I get what I want at bargain, really, since the sound is so good.  IF you think your NAD is that good; and I give this:  Class D in the bass is penultimate (again, the reason it is the best amp for subs), go out and directly compare it to a Luxman M 800, or Accuphase A 200.  No dice.  Like a lot of things in audio, once one has made the A/B test the results often present themselves.  I never thought I would of gotten rid of a near new Bryston 14b SST on the thought it was good, but in the listening, the proof was there, and I was sold.  

And in terms of amplification being science, we have proven the "Julian Hirsch Ideology" moot.  If music and sound were purely scientific there would be no art.

AGE DOES NOT MEAN A THING.  Circuit topology and implementation are everything (including parts quality). 

Agree 100% with Blackfly.
Actually very often older classc gear puts the so called "latest and gratest" to shame.