The NAD M33 will cancel your complaints about Class D


There are many reasons to like one type of sound over another. Even among what are considered very good amplifiers there’s a broad range of tastes and preferences among audiophiles. Just ask a SET aficionado!

However, no class is more maligned, inappropriately, than Class D. To hear some regulars tell it, Class D sound will thin your blood, make your teeth fall out and ruin your enjoyment of just about everything because it sounds so (fill in a lot of tropes from the 1980’s here).

I’ve been listening to NAD’s prior collaboration with Bruno Putzy and I can tell with some confidence that none of those tired old tropes apply. For reasons related much more to tonal balance than anything else, I’m sticking with Class A/B in my main system, but with the introduction of the next gen Anthem AVR receivers and the NAD M33 I may be making the switch back to class D.

You don’t have to like the M33 or the Anthem’s but can we at least agree that it’s time to retire the old guard of reasons not to buy Class D? Lets lay those poor phantoms to rest.
erik_squires
class d is a generic labeling of amplifier type

just like there are good and bad tube amps, class a/b solid state amps, mosfet amps, bipolar transistor amps, nos r2r dacs, moving coil cartridges, belt drive turntables, ribbon tweeters, electrostats... it is all in the holistic implementation of any particular offering that matters...

class d amps as a class, over their development in the past decade plus, were touted as the next best thing... yet many early versions did clearly sound poor... thus the reputation/hearsay came to be

just like digital, progress continues and improvements are made and those with open minds are wise to revisit past beliefs, which may have been perfectly reasonable and accurate at the time...
+2 jjss49

     You gave a good summary, seem to have a good grasp of the subject and true dat.

Tim
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The best experience I’ve had with class D was with a low powered unit by SPEC.  I’m curious if Atmosphere is familiar with their amps.  In the end I found I was listening less, so it got the axe.  I’ll be skeptical of class D after that sham of a thread where everyone was selling $40k worth of tube gear to buy a particular class d European amp.  That got the axe much quicker than the spec. Hope you all enjoy what you have to be grateful for.