What is your favorite Class D amp?


Moving to a new home with a smaller dedicated listening room has caused me to rethink my entire system.  I have always been a fan of EL34 tube amps and presently have a Primaluna HP (4 tubes per channel), but the size and heat make this a bit more difficult in my new set up.  So I have been thinking about going with a smaller, less hot class D amp.  But being a tube guy, I have never seriously looked into or listen to these amps.

so what is your favorite class D amp?  New or used, in the 5k range, but could go up to 10k.  Preamp is a Conrad Johnson ET-7.  Speaker will be in the monitor/mini-monitor class (so I don’t need high power for a smallish room) but have not made my final decision on speakers as the amp/speaker synergy makes this kind of a joint decision.

I purposely asked for “favorite” to be a bit more open in your relies.

thanks, Bill

meiatflask

Good times gentlemen. Seems like class d has come a long way. 3 or 4 years ago prior to my class a/b tube amp purchase, my first tube amp, I was reading a lot about them. I read a lot about Atmasphere and have a lot of respect for Ralph. They were newish at the time and even though the reviews were positive, I was a bit hesitant and went another direction. I’ve recently been following the Starkrimson Tour on the Steve Hoffman forums. You sign up and get to demo the mono block amp. Reviews seem quite favorable of their class d amps as well. Seems like a good amount of competition and class d seems to be getting pretty established as an audiophile option. Will probably be my next amp, hopefully years from now! Good luck OP

Honestly my experience is pretty limited.  My best comparison listening was with ICEpower and they sounded really close to middle of the road Parasound A series amps.  Blindfolded I could not tell the difference, so sold the Parasound. 

However, I also really liked my Luxman integrated more, but this may very well be more due to the preamp stage than the amp.  So, went from Parasound to ICEpower to Luxman.  

The Douk NS-13G is unbelieve. It has treble and bass controls and Phono and Aux 1 volt input such as a CD player or FM tune. And it does not have the Muses 02 op amp upgrade yet. I think I may be done with tube amps.

I was able to try out a pair of Merrill Veritas amps which sell for around $3500-$6000 on resale market depending on condition and add on’s. I compared it to a tube amp that cost $17k and although I preferred the tube amp, the Veritas have it a run for it money. Very transparent, powerful and musical but compared to the tube amp too sterile. Definitely made me want to checkout the higher end Merrill amps.