Expanding the Class D Conversation: How Would You Characterize Their Differences?

@hilde45 i have been listening to these amps for about two months now.  I used to hold the opinion that measurement obsession was bad and any good measuring amp was going to sound poor.  It is why I have been using tubes in my reference system till December.  I have researched extensively why these seem not to suck the life out of the music.

The 800s don’t just measure “low distortion.” They measure low across frequency, level, and load. That means tiny dynamic shifts — breath, string texture, vocal inflection — aren’t masked. You’re hearing the signal emerge from blackness, not etched detail.

Linn prioritizes timing (PRaT isn’t marketing fluff for them). The 800s preserve phase integrity and transient timing. When timing is right, music feels alive — when it’s off, even slightly, things feel dry.  This is true across all Linn products including their speakers  

Many “musical” amps achieve engagement by adding harmonic sweetness. The 800s don’t add bloom — but they also don’t create upper-mid glare or HF hash. The absence of edge is perceived as ease.

Linn’s Dynamik supply and rail switching keep voltage incredibly stable. So when music demands current (bass transients, orchestral swings), the amp doesn’t flatten or harden. It stays relaxed and controlled. That composure reads as musical flow, not sterility.  This is what a truly extraordinary switching PSU delivers.  

if they are paired with a good preamp or their Klimax level DSM, musicality is not a problem.  I can’s answer what would happen if they were paired with colder gear.  I don’t enjoy colder gear so I don’t really have any on hand to test.  

@earthbound Good question! Let me push back on "live music" as the singular standard here on two counts. First, live venues are often acoustically compromised — reverberant halls, poor PA mixing, variable sightlines — and frequently sound worse than a well-assembled stereo. Anyone who has sat under a balcony at a large concert hall or suffered a muddy festival PA knows that "live" is not automatically a sonic benchmark.

Second, and more fundamentally, a large proportion of the music most of us actually love — studio recordings, electronic music, much jazz and pop — was never a live acoustic event in the first place. It was created *in* the recording medium. Setting live unamplified music as the reference standard for evaluating reproduced sound is a much narrower criterion than it first appears.

@verdantaudio 

The 800s don’t just measure “low distortion.” They measure low across frequency, level, and load. That means tiny dynamic shifts — breath, string texture, vocal inflection — aren’t masked. You’re hearing the signal emerge from blackness, not etched detail....When timing is right, music feels alive — when it’s off, even slightly, things feel dry.  This is true across all Linn products including their speakers.

Linn’s Dynamik supply and rail switching keep voltage incredibly stable. So when music demands current (bass transients, orchestral swings), the amp doesn’t flatten or harden. It stays relaxed and controlled. That composure reads as musical flow, not sterility.  This is what a truly extraordinary switching PSU delivers.  

This is a very clear statement as to why it’s not "measures well VERSUS adding harmonics for musicality." There are multiple paths toward "musical." They all involve listening and measuring and, of course, if a company only seeks measurements, they are unlikely to get to "musical." 

Frankly, I’m tired of this non-issue.

@earthbound Could it be that people who have listened to music for so long are so used to distortion coming from their systems, home, car etc..that without it music seems lifeless? The more I think about it, the more I wonder. How many of us have listened to live music without it going through some sort of electronic equipment...

Great question, and could be. :)  You might be on to something perhaps. 

A decade ago doing some updated research on what type of guitar amplifiers were being used on well known songs we all loved from the 60s, 70s, and part of the 80s.  At the time, I was really into EL34 tube amps at home, loving the distortion, and play back of those same songs originally played and recorded as such. Playback on the same types of tubes they were originally recorded in, etc.  

i.e. EL34 tubes are famously associated with the "British sound" of Marshall amplifiers, creating a warm, lush, and punchy tone with prominent midrange that defined much of 1960s and 70s rock. They are known for breaking up early, offering a creamy, rich distortion. 

My friends new Guitar amp:

-a good friend was giddy about his new guitar amp coming soon, and all of his other amps were Marshalls, we had come to love the sound of, and for his band.

Well, the new solid state (non tube) guitar amp showed up with the Class-D for the lower bass section, not sure how it was configured. The sound was quite different. Sure, fast, clean, snappy.  Most of the former tone, texture, decay, and transition of notes from one string to the next was not there any more. More strident. Sure, you could hear a bit more of those notes, yet how it was presented in [more strident] and less pleasant way was definitely being compared to a former sound both of us were "so used to" before.  I sort of agree with your question and why you bring it up. Yep, possibly so.  

If today's generation of new audiophiles grows up with early version Class-D amps and sound, with electronic crossovers involved too, perhaps they might prefer this type of sound over what older Class-A SS/Tube amps offer. Could be, and to your point.  Interesting question btw.   

Yeah just a thought for another time. I don’t want to derail this thread, which is a good one. 

"@earthbound Yeah just a thought for another time. I don’t want to derail this thread, which is a good one."

.

imo, I don’t think you are too far off topic, actually.  The title of this thread asks "How Would You Characterize Their Differences?"

What if those characterizations and descriptions of likes & dislikes also relate to preferences, and what each person is "so used to" growing up with audio.   

There may in fact be those who will continue to like Class A/AB solid state, others for all tubes, some for hybrids, and some pure Class-D, just like different types of food. How each person decides what they like and how they describe what they hear could vary greatly.  Same debates with Tube vs SS in Class A, AB, now into Class-D more than ever.  Similar discussions around different "tubes" too, fwiw.