Class A vs. AB vs. D... can you hear a difference?

To me there's a chance that a class D would differ too much with what the Statement amp is doing with the B&W's. Class A is too hot and getting 200 plus wpc would be pretty rare and expensive I think. No point in trying to re-invent the wheel here, stick with what is in the rest of the system, Bill.

There are newer designs of class A operation that does not put off so much heat, with the likes of fans,very low stand by power consumptions and etc.., me, I enjoy the Heat of pure class A operation in big class A older amps, keeps my family warm in the winter, and I appreciate the amp's value more, by thinking of the amp as a jet engine that blows the sound quality out the window with any other class of operation of amps, might not make sence, but I love it!

If they are well made you can not hear the difference.

Ngjockey, you have to realize that linear power supply is in reality a primitive switcher that pollutes AC even more. Jeff Rowland designed his latest class AB power amps with SMPS to reduce noise. For the same reason he designed his Capri preamp with SMPS (where efficiency is not important). Benchmark was able to improve signal to noise ratio from 116 to 126dB by changing power supply from linear in DAC1 to SMPS in DAC2 . Recent power amp from Benchmark is also powered by SMPS. As for the highs in class D, I agree - they sound different, more natural. Brass sounds less splashy and more like brass.

I owned class D amplifiers on two occasions, an expensive set of Cary monoblocks being one of them.

First of all, these 500 watts per unit sounded no more authoritative than the 100 watts per side integrated it replaced.

Secondly, even though I wanted to like them, I just could not get used to the sound. Pretty bad experience in my case.