The Truth about Modern Class D

@taww, Mola Mola Kaluga’s. If you are in the U.K. we can arrange for you to try.

The new Primare I35 gets a glowing review in the latest Hi-Fi + mag, the reviewer asks if one needs a better amp than this, as it is that good, and he normally tests the big and expensive amps for living, but of course he is a professional reviewer for good, and maybe bad ;-)

Many here know I replaced 2 Emerald Physics 100.2SEs with an Audio Alchemy DPA 1 HYBRID stereo amp, but at the time I was using a Hattor XLR passive pre that George pointed out was also a impedance mismatch. But when I replaced the Hattor with the Audio Alchemy DDP-1 DAC/Pre that the music came together in amazing ways (sonically neutral and 3D) . It was only AFTER listening to them that I was made aware of  The Absolute Sound review in March of 2016, comparing them to the SOULution amp/pre. This combo revealed abilities in my Emerald Physics KCIIs, tht allowed me to eliminate my 2 SVS powered subs!

The AA combo MSRP is $4K. I am still writing on the external power supply

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I see threads like this "looking for the truth" started as a "reach out for confirmation" from owners who know their Class-D’s are not quite right, but
can’t bring himself to go back to linear, almost like begging for forgiveness, for what they have done and everything will hopefully be fine."

Hello George, have you perhaps caught a sudden chill? I, like Erik and several others use our ears.... We need nor seek confirmation for the devices and the music we love. Let alone seek "forgiveness" for our anathema... Man, you do need an icepack on your brow today... Or would it be an ICEpower pack *Smiles!*

On the contrary, as mentioned so many times, I invite you to get "out of the house" just a bit.... The musical air is amazingly refreshing today... You might even catch a lovely class D breeze. To the contrary of the trite urban legends circulating in old and stuffy audiophilic houses, There are some class D amps that make wonderful music.... Provided one cares taking a good open minded listen to them. In addition to the ones that Erik and I already mentioned on other threads, I recommend a good audition to the newest Merrills Element 118, 116, and 114. 

BTW, I remember no more than one year ago you advocating that the day of class D would come once designers adopted Gallium Nitrite transistors switching at 1.5Mhz.... But now that appears to be a moving target... As the new Merrills are using such technology, you are changing your dirge already.... And just to make sure you can lament for a few years more, while remaining a staunch paper-bound audiophile,your latest goal is a onetousand-fold Ghz range... Once that boundary is finally crossed, I am confident that you wil pine for a brand new 1K-fold switching frequency leap into the Terahertz range... Meantime, you will still be suffering from never-ending "Princess and the class D pea" syndrome, whilst pouring smilingly over that ever-reassuring old PDF by Martin collom from the 2008 munich Show, where the old trombone from HiFi Critic had not even noticed that he had already missed the train *Grins!

G.

       

 @abasia 
good question, and one I have asked earlier when I was thinking the same thing ...

to to avoid some unnecessary quibbles, we probably should have established some parameters for Class D in terms of quality r/t:
1. Price of the class d amp, and 
2: perhaps overall system cost, assuming some reasonable sense of equality (price, performance) b/w the main components in the system 

Examples:
1.  E.g., for the price of the Class D amp alone, at what Price point would the GENERAL price break be?  b/w a good Class D and one that the unsatisfactory Class D amp. 
$1000 ?   $2000? $3k? And so on and so forth. 
E.g., “even”George has said he finds Class D acceptable at the 1.5 MHz switching speed. How much are those SE-1s?

—> Same question for everyone else. There will be a variety of price points given,, reflecting individual tastes. 

B/c right now both sides are making blanket statements about Class D. And both are wrong. But both are right. It’s the specifics guys. Cuz right now we are both just hitting our heads against the wall. 

In the words of a prior college professor, “it’s the specifics stupid”.