What going fully Class D has taught me.

Maybe I’m just lucky, but the 2 class D amps I bought to use in my space constrained home office both sound very good on a succession of speakers (good 2-ways including Harbeth 30.1s, ATC SCM12 Pro, and KEF 103.2):

• Wyred 4 Sound ST-500 (ICEPower): sounds great at all volumes, not sterile, cold or edgy in the least. It puts out so little heat that (w/W4S’s approval) I stand it on its side IMS)
• bel canto 600M mono amps (NCore): also sound great all volumes, also not sterile, cold or edgy. The sound is a bit more resolved and elevated than the W4S, but these are very small differences

I no longer have big speakers in big rooms. My office system is a pretty high level nearfield setup. So I can’t claim that either of these class D amps would equal tube amps or good A/B amps in terms of soundstaging and timbral accuracy in typical (not nearfield) system setups. But IMS and for my needs, both amps are ideal.

FWIW, I am now and always have been very sensitive to edgy, tense-sounding SS components (have owned a number of amps/preamps/DACs like that). These class Ds are not in that camp at all. 

For very revealing two channel, D still leaves something to be desired. It's definitely the only way to go for home theater and multi channel. BTW, ICE has fallen way behind. For the best bang for buck look to Purifi Eigentakt or Hypex NCX500 modules. 

I don't know about ICE falling behind, but to my ears it has a warmer sound.  Closer to Parasound Halo amps than my Luxman for instance.  I don't need it to be better IMHO, it's just got its own signature, much like linear amps. 

@phusis  - I specifically made the sacrifice to minimize the cables I'd need otherwise, especially when trying to integrate HT and 2-channel sound.  Last thing I need is multiple amps, external DSP and more cables. 

I've realized recently my Hypex plate amps have 2 RCA inputs.  This makes it possible to run a separate source chain (DAC/preamp) directly without the usual HT bypass features. 

After going through so many threads, one things is for sure - Class D's performance surely is confusing.

Sometimes, I think that is because people are so much used to Class AB that a small amplifiers running huge speakers affects them psychologically? But again there are a few threads where I have read some folks who were into SET amplification have found GaN amplification similar to SET amps and have switched to class D.

The only way to find out is by personally experiencing Class D. I was seriously thinking of NAD M23 v2, AGD Duet, any other Purifi based amps, etc.