bel canto and wyred 4 sound

Ron, I got around to hooking up my Bel Cantos to the little maggies. Initially I just did a quick hook up of the maggies to the HT Receiver (yeah I know, no comment necessary, it's a Pioneer Elite model???). I am not too much into HT, so this is just for my kids.

But the Bel Cantos Ref 1000 seem to sound quite nice with the maggies (which I have not hooked up in my main system yet). I am just running a pre-out from my HT Receive to the Bel Cantos into the maggies. The sound is a notable (unsurprising) improvement vs. the HT receiver driving the maggies. These were cheap speakers and it had been a while since I had run maggies in my house and I figured they would be nice to play around with, especially with the BC amps. I can understand why people like this combo. Though it certainly doesn't compare to the performance of my main system (again, unsurprisingly as none of the other components, cabling, room, etc. compare).

Outside of these notes, I can understand many of your comments on the class A, class A/B, class D and the tube amps. Not sure if I agree with all the comments as I have had a tough time finding anything outside of Class A that has performed as well "in my system". Though having had good tubed amps, I love the sound, hate my continuous concern about the tubes and maintenance insecurities. The sound can be great though.

ALL the ICE amps have more in common than big differences.

has anyone EVER done a 'd' shootout?

FWIW, my 'd' amp, a PSAudio, drives my 1.6 maggies without effort.

I would have to agree with Magfan on his comments regarding similarity of class D amps having more in like, than major differences. I have owned and tested a few and found this to be the case - WITH WHAT I HAVE HEARD.

There are certainly other threads that make note of MAJOR differences; however, not to my ear!

I am surprised how content I am with the Maggie SMGa speakers, considering their price (I paid), their age and the lack of equipment support vs. my main rig. It makes me want to consider buying a more current and much larger pair.

As to the sound of Bel Canto and W4S, I can't say based on side by side comparisons, but again, I agree with Magfan that there is unlikely to be much of a difference. So many of these Class D amps seem to be comparing themselves to much more expensive Class A amps. I haven't experienced a level of performance that is anywhere close to matching the true class A amps that I am accustomed to in MY SYSTEM.

I don't think you can compare the two brands. Wyred amps are mostly similar save power ratings however BC designs vary more. THe better BCs have improved power supplies and are tube pre-amp friendly. Different BCs use different version ICEPOWER modlues. The Wyreds are tube pre-amp friendly but do nothing special with teh power supply TTBOMK and I think all Wyreds use the same version of the ICEPOWER module. So you have to compare specif models, not brands in general.

Resale prices tend to be good relative indicators of how specific models compare feature wise I think

The ASP module includes powersupply. So, they are pretty much plug /play.

The ASC module is meant to be powered from an ASP module OR from a stand-alone PS. At that point you can buy a transformer and a capacitor bank, or go SMPS.

The output sections are very similar...topology and device selection.

It would appear that W4S uses unmodified ASP modules with perhaps a few changes on the input end. My PSAudio, built in the same facility has what they call the 'GainCell' on the input. I have no detail on that, except it is a potted module.

Other 'd' implementations may have character of their own. Hypex, Spectron and the little known International Rectifier are all 'd' entries. Spectron is proprietary, Channel Islands uses Hypex and I have no idea about IR modules, except I've got one out in the garage needing a power supply.

The 2 major topologies of 'd' amps, what are called 'FullBridge' and 'HalfBridge' may account for differences in sound.