@georgehifi Interesting article, full of inaccuracies. One I may have helped propagate.
Class D vs. Digital Amplification
The article claims, erroneously, that Class D amps all have an A/D converter at the front. They do not.
It is actually more of an Analog to Analog converter with a switching voltage amplifier in the middle. :) Somewhere there is an article or paper by Bruno Putzeyes chafing at the use of "Digital" to describe his amps, which I can't find right now. Worth a read if you can find it
Class D amps (ICEPower/Hypex) generally rely on feedback to control the switching, which uses a linear comparator. There's no A/D conversion in the chain, it's not needed.
Here is a good short article on the subject:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class-D_amplifier
Interestingly, George, the Technics Class-D amp you are looking forward to IS more of a digital
amp than most Class D in that it DOES have an A/D front end, followed
by a DSP engine to do the calibration and frequency/phase adjustments to the original signal
before feeding the amplifier section. You are really trusting the amplifier with a great deal, because it will chew the signal up and digest it before spitting it out again. This is an approach not entirely unlike Theta and Meridian have undertaken.
Best,
E