D class amps with Soundlab speakers

"I find that class D works a lot better if they aren't being pushed hard."

PRobaly true with most any SS amp but honestly, I play my BC ref1000m's pretty loud on some relatively inefficient speakers (albeit not electrostats, which are unique electronically) in a decent sized room and I have never detected them being even moderately warm, much less break a sweat. THey seem to handle things without much effort for the most part no matter what. No sign of stress or rough edges in the sound whatsover no matter what. Has not been the case with any other SS amps I have used there, which is one big reason I went to one of the biggest yet most efficient, well reviewed, and tube pre-amp friendly SS amps I could find. I had to stretch a bit to handle the cost but it was worth it.

I have heard other IcePower amps (Rowland) do a similarly nice job with Magnepans however. I can't imagine that a good design that addresses power supply around a stock Icepower amp module like these could not handle just about anything. I might be somewhat more skeptical about some amps that just stick stock Icepower modules in a box but I would expect decent results even there.

Ralph it would seem to me that the D class amps would have a hard time with the soundlab speaker because they are so compact without weight; this to me says the power supply section would be lacking and not be able to make the power as the speaker starts to demand it.I have never heard a d class amp on any speaker but this is the area of these amps that I can't grasp vs the tube or solid state amp with a huge and heavy power supply section;maybe I am just of the old school and behind the times on this area of the hobby.

My understanding is the efficiency of the high speed switching design of
the class d amp is what enables its compact size and weight including that
of the power supply compared to similar power rated class a or class a/b.

It is really a major technical step forward these days in amp size, weight
power and performance compared to older design approaches. Very
innovative!

In case it would be of any significance in the present discussion, I have a Spectron with all the upgrades driving a pair of Acoustat Spectra 44. It does it with a lot of ease with firmer bass performance and overall definition than my Coda Model 11 100 watts full class A. And it remains quite cool to the touch. The preamp is a CJ Premier 16 LS2 and I find the mix quite listenable too.

I could add a class D amp, at least a higher quality one, is also a plus in terms of silent running, which is detrimental in retrieving all the details of a recording for which electrostats are mostly famous.

"I find that class D works a lot better if they aren't being pushed hard."

For most class D amp its true. However, Mark Levinson has huge power supplies. Jeff Rowland has very large, Daniel Weiss amps are very powerful too and my Spectron has 3500 watt peak power (and stable to 0.1 Ohm load)

It has almost nothing to do with output stage (be it class D or other calss) - only one thing is important, the temperature should not raise above safe operatating levels.

The weight of the power supplies is "important" only in linear PSU but in switching like that of Jeff Rowland (not ICE Power, sorry) the weight is low.

Among class D I mentioned above, Mark levinson cost $50k, Weiss $30k, Jeff Rowland $15k and Spectron with all upgardes about $5.5k or in monoblock mode - $11k. You pay for quality...