Zu Omen Defs and Ice Amps?

The Class D amps I've heard do indeed suck, but then I wasn't crazy about the Zu Omens either, which a friend owned for about a week. I imagine that the Zus and the Class D amps I've heard would be a marriage made in hell. Audiofeil probably sells others.

Not to take away from this thread's intended question, but to defend Class D amps: if you haven't heard the Spectron Musician III Mk2, please don't rationalize that all Class D amps suck.

I chose mine after comparing it to my Karan KA I-180, Burmester 036 and Pass XA30.5.

Chuck

Audiofeil - I agree. I use small class D Rowland 102 amp with Hyperion HPS-938 speakers (90dB sensitivity). Sound has presence and resolution but also softness and fullness. Bass is punchy and powerful. Instruments sound very natural with great harmonic structure. There are even many better class D amps these days, so it is hard to understand how anybody can toss general statements like that.

Class D amps are very revealing, I'm sure you agree, ruthlessly unmasking any system deficiencies - otherwise it would be hard to understand why others describe similar amp as "ear bleeding", "dry" "thin" etc. while I hear just the opposite - smooth, clean and full sounding.

"The Zu's obviously don't need a lot of power so I'm thinking one of these newer digital amps might be a good fit."

Texas42 - Digital amps are "a lot of power". I often see such statements relating to lower power tube amps and high sensitivity speakers. More power won't hurt but there is a risk of overdamping, as Paul suggested - need to check synergy. It worked for me in spite of 90dB rating.

Dopogue,
Indeed I do sell a line of Class D amps. But that is not germane to my criticism of the Florida butthead.

If you believe all suck, perhaps a move to Florida is in your best interest.

Inexperience and ignorance reign supreme there. You'd fit right in.

I will throw out a general statement about Class D is mid fi at best. I have listened to way too many Class D amps and to two that have been mentioned in this thread and they have big power but they do not deliver the quality. The problem is that manufacturing good old fashioned power has gotten very expensive here in the USA for the average US citizen. To build a strong Class A or AB amp you need to dissipate a lot of heat and that requires lots of machined aluminum metal, that is very expensive. It was not a problem until the dollar sank and our economy went south. The reason that high efficiency speakers are popular these days is that you can use high quality old fashioned lower power amps and get better sound than what you get from a 1000Watts of negative feedback switching power supply power amp. The manufactures are also struggling to make stuff people can afford. Under normal economic conditions I they would be a place for Class D but it would not be in high end sound systems. I am not saying that Class D is a bad technology what I am saying is that it needs to improve. I remember when I got my first CD player and I had a first pressing of The Police Synchronicity on Vinyl and bought the CD. What a let down the CD was. No one believed me that the vinyl record blew away the CD. My friends thought I was crazy. What was scary is that I had a Yamaha CDX 1100U CD player and a very very cheap Technics belt drive turntable with a cheap Ortofon p mount cartridge that sounded better then the summmer job's wages I saved to buy that Yamaha CD player.