Time to buy a class D amp?



Will some new class D amplifiers outperforming the current ones appear soon

(the newest ones i know were released a  few years ago)?

Class D amps attract me as I consider them the most ecological ones with obvious non-auditionable benefits.

I have no doubts that they posses the maximum ratio performance/sound quality among the amplifiers of all classes.

At the same time, the sound quality the class D amplifiers that I have auditioned produce, although is quite good,

but not yet ideal (for my taste).


I use PS Audio Stellar S300 amp with PS audio Gain Cell pre/DAC with Thiel CS 3.6 speakers in one of my systems.

The sound is ok (deep bass, clear soundstage) but not perfect (a bit bright and somehow dry, lacking warmness which might be more or less ok for rock but not for jazz music).

I wonder if there are softer sounding class D amps with the same or better details and resolution. Considering two reasonable (as to the budget) choices for test, Red Dragon S500 and Digital Audio Company's

Cherry  2 (or Maraschino monoblocks), did anybody compare these two?



128x128niodari

Again back in product protection mode.

Read again from Texas Instruments, far more authoritative than you Ralph, and this is still with the output filter in place, but with it set too high, without it and you have a tweeter meltdown.

From Texas Instruments:
On output filters of Class-D amps that are set too high corner frequency.
"A concern with the switching waveform being dissipated in the speaker is that it may cause damage to the speaker"

This is what happened to my mates Wilson 8’s above, as Wilson does not use a Zoble Filters on it’s tweeter and I on any of their speakers tweeters.

Cheers George
I run a BEl Canto C5i true-digital Class D integrated amp in a smaller system that would seem to fit your bill. Detail and resolution is top notch and never fatiguing. "Smoothest" sounding amp I have ever owned by far. Only 60 w/ch 8 ohm, enough to deliver the goods, but probably not concert level SPLs.

I would expect other newer higher power Bel Canto class D amps would work similarly.

I also have older Bel Canto ref1000m amps (500w/ch 8 ohm) that could fit the bill in my main system. Not quite as smooth as the C5i perhaps with some speakers, but similar and still a major improvement over any other amp I had used prior.

If ever in Baltimore /DC metro area, would be happy to provide a listen if desired.
Read again from Texas Instruments, far more authoritative than you Ralph, and this is still with the output filter in place, but with it set too high, without it and you have a tweeter meltdown.

From Texas Instruments:
On output filters of Class-D amps that are set too high corner frequency.
"A concern with the switching waveform being dissipated in the speaker is that it may cause damage to the speaker"

This is what happened to my mates Wilson 8’s above, as Wilson does not use a Zoble Filters on it’s tweeter and I on any of their speakers tweeters.


Oh, sure- that is indeed a concern for the *designer*. Not the finished product! Your friend's speaker was not damaged by the residual of a class D amp; that idea is ridiculous. If indeed the anecdote is real and this isn't a made up story then the tweeter was damaged by an amplifier being driven into overload. That is the most common way tweeters are damaged.



FWIW I’ve run a bunch of Class D amps over the last several years all the time and no tweeter meltdowns. In fact 0 issues and they even tend to be the quietest amps ever. Never a sound other than what’s playing. I even leave them on most of the time as recommended.
 
Good Class D's like everything else costs a lot of money.   I'd wait a year or two