What Class D amps will drive a 2 ohm load

Hi @golfnutz

Wow, huge difference in my dislike for particular brands, and being on a crusade.

I’ve never disrespected anyone for liking Pass. I’ve never told them they were wrong.

I have however said that Pass was not to my taste, for reasons I don’t fully understand, and honestly I write so little about Spectral I’m not sure what I said. It was probably something like I just didn’t do that much for me, but very glad there are readers like you here who track my writing so much. Kind of makes me blush.

Usually my comments about Pass are related to people asking for alternatives. In fact I have at times recommended people listen to Pass and Ayre as counterpoints and buy what they like.

Please point to where some one has asked for the best Pass amp, and I’ve been there telling them they were wrong.

Also, please point to a single post about anything where I tell some one their tastes were wrong. I may not agree with what you like, but I am nothing if not supportive of individuals buying what they like.

And that is a major place George and I are different. I think you should buy what sounds good. George on the other hand wants to pull out review after review proving to people what they like is wrong.


There’s nothing hypocritical there golf.


Further, I don’t attempt to bring out technical data (say distortion) and make a claim that the measurement automatically proves my like/dislike for a brand / model is because of it. In fact, that is kind of key. Sometimes Class D measures differently than a linear amp. That’s very different than saying it sounds better or worse, and that’s where George refuses to accept any of the countless suggestions from a’goners to show how one connects to the other.

Sometimes I know a measurement that is related to my tastes, or a listener’s experience, often I do not, or after listening find there is no correlation.

After multiple polite suggestions from many a’goners for George to stick to specifics. Specific models, specific experience, he has a real time doing that, and instead relies on tropes.
Nothing wrong with George saying "I heard brand x model Y and I did not like it for these reasons." Would love to read that, because those Class D fans are making their cases with specific models, features and sound qualities, something George has pretty much ignored.

Another pattern I find useful is "Hey, for x amount of dollars, have you listened to Y brand? I really like them more." and if I am guilty of this, fine.

Here is an example of me being not George, after an A'goner asked for help with integrateds :

Luxman, Ayre and for budget comparison Arcam.

Pass, Luxman and Ayre will give you distinctly different results, so I think they are worth listening to. If you like tubes, I really like the latest gen ARC integrateds.


Of course, I bought a Luxman and I stand by my decision. :)

If you think that sounds like me bashing Pass, I don't know what to tell you.



Best,

Erik

George,
You said "This Stereophile’s JA’s statement, is the typical case where a 25w amp like the ML2’s with doubling capable wattage current will drive a pig of a load like these Alexia’s and the OP’s speaker "to a given level" with perfection better than any 3000w class-d can."  OK, "drive" is the issue you are concerned with, to the exclusion of the much more important question of what an amp SOUNDS like.  A more powerful engine will DRIVE a truck better than a smaller engine, but this is irrelevant to what people here care about.  My Mytek Brooklyn will have problems DRIVING a very low impedance inefficient speaker to very loud levels.  SO WHAT?  At 1 to 100 watts, it kills the ML2 for resolution.

Your Mytec below measured by Stereophile, could even get it up into 2ohms at all.

Stereophiles JA’s summation, "practical use with speakers whose impedance doesn’t drop below 3 ohms."
No good at all with the OP’s speakers we are talking about here.

245W into 8 ohms
315Wpc into 4 ohms
when I tried to measure the clipping power into 2 ohms, the Mytek went into protection mode at 310W (18.9dBW),

Stereophiles JA’s summation, "practical use with speakers whose impedance doesn’t drop below 3 ohms."
No good at all with the OP’s speakers we are talking about here.

245W into 8 ohms
315Wpc into 4 ohms
when I tried to measure the clipping power into 2 ohms, the Mytek went into protection mode at 310W (18.9dBW),

@georgehifi 
You like to put up specs; now you have to also live with what they say. And what they are saying is:
The Mytek can make about 300 watts into 2 ohms and therefore is able to double power from 75 watts into 8 ohms to 150 watts into 4 and finally 300 watts into 2 ohms. If we take @viber6 at his word, his amp plays nearly 5dB louder than yours into any load your amp can drive and sounds better at the same time. This assumes that the bass region is where the 2 ohm load occurs- where most of the musical energy lies.


But if the 2 ohm load occurs at 8 or 10KHz the story is quite different since so little power is used at that frequency. Then the Mytek would be able to play nearly **10dB louder** than your amp and sound better all the while if we take @viber6 at his word.

Quite simply an amplifier does not have to double power into 2 ohms from 4 ohms in order to behave as a voltage source. The only time this might be an issue depends on the impedance curve of the speaker and at the full power of the amp. If less than full power things are very different!

I have CS5i's and recapped the crossovers last year and made a MAJOR improvement to the driveability by going active on the subs.  As part of the recap I drew out the huge crossovers and found that the 2 subs are done as augmentation woofers to 60hz where the 8" center woofer covers sub to 400.  Basically all 3 are run in parallel at sub frequencies. There was only a single coil on the subs and it was super easy to wire them to a new binding post. I was able to single amp or biamp and the improvement is stunning. It also opened up them to using many other amps that did not need to cope with the 2 ohm bass load. I used an ICE amp on the subs and my ML 333 on the rest. SUPER dynamic now.