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My NAD 3020 D proves your Class D tropes are wrong

I have a desktop integrated, the NAD 3020D which I use with custom near field monitors. It is being fed by Roon via a Squeezebox Touch and coaxial digital.

It is 5 years old and it sounds great. None of the standard myths of bad Class D sound exist here. It may lack the tube like liquid midrange of my Luxman, or the warmth of my prior Parasound but no one in this forum could hear it and go "aha, Class D!!" by itself, except maybe by the absolute lack of noise even when 3’ away from the speakers.

I’m not going to argue that this is the greatest amp ever, or that it is even a standout desktop integrated. All I am saying is that the stories about how bad Class D is compared to linear amps have been outdated for ages.

Great to see new development with GaN based Class D amps, great to see Technics using DSP feed-forward designs to overcome minor limitations in impedance matching and Atmasphere’s work on reducing measurable distortion as well but OMG stop with the "Class D was awful until just now" threads as it ignores about 30 years of steady research and innovation.
erik_squires
grunge100
17 posts
 
Hey atmasphere,

Are you working on any Class D amps? 

Kindest Regards,
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,615 posts
 
Technics is the curious case of feed-forward design. :) Kind of sort of.
It depends on which part of their website you're paying attention to :)
Are you working on any Class D amps?
Yes. Its one of our own design- we're not using anyone's modules.
dletch2
455 posts
 
It is quite possible there is a flaw in the ICEPower design where optimum operation requires a higher operating temperature. Many SS parts have significant performance change w.r.t. temperature.  I would say run them hard for 20-30 minutes after cold and see what you think, preferably with you out of the room so you are not getting desensitized.
brandini
13 posts
 
I've been listening to a vtv purifi eval-1 for just over a week on my ascend acoustics towers being fed with a topping d90 dac using the topping a90 as preamp.  I'm mostly very impressed.  It sounds super clear and punchy showing off on great recordings. 

On the other hand bad recordings sound exactly how they sound but clearer.  Purifi gives you the truth and nothing but the truth for better or worse as far as I can tell.  I think the only way around this is for somebody to invent a DAC with powerful AI that can remaster bad recordings on the fly in the most euphonic way.
cromaudionut
9 posts
 
Just a few cents here.  Class D seems to be one of the many technologies that some folks just won’t allow to grow.  No matter how much development goes into it, there’s gonna be those that will never accept it as producing quality sound.  NAD being a company that has cut its teeth on producing very good sounding equipment over many years gets reduced to junk just because they use a historically unpopular technology among audiophiles in a new age product.  Something’s clearly amiss here.  
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