who has moved from a class a/b amplifier to CLass D digital ?

One day I woke up, and looking at my old Marants, I said to myself "That damn thing is just too efficient!". So I built big ole class A amp. It makes clean square waves out to 200KHz and will swing 10 amp into a 1 ohm load. I'm going to be sticking with it for a while.
Would love to see a picture of that!
 
I tried several different Class D amplifiers, from several different makes. My speakers and other sources also are another thing to consider. My speakers aren't best for Class D amplifiers, as I need low damped, and simpler circuitry. My Phase Tech Euro monitors are the best sounding of my speakers with Class D. If I bought new speakers and sources, the results would be different. I am still going to listen to every Class D amplifier I can, and may consider one some day. Also, repairable and maintainable important. And for me 20-20,000 matters. Low distortion and clean sound. I've heard B&K Icepower and the new Adcom Class D, and the Crown Drivecore models by the way.
 
I move from Class A/B to Class D every time I go out to the garage. :)

My A/B amp is special and - I hope - going nowhere; my D amp is not - just a cheapie. Sounds pretty good, though. I understand that the better/best D keeps improving. Has the gap closed? Guess that may depend on speaker choice, as Kent implies.
 
Sort of. My office system now has a built-in Class D amp...built into the KEF LS50W speakers. My main system is quite the opposite, using a McCormack DNA 0.5. It's large, and runs in Class A for a few watts, then A/B.
 
Im not refering to the crown XLS drivecore Class D pro amps. I think everyone has tried them as they were such a good $ to watt at one point. I am talking about the Ice chip amps or the other classD amps that have sprung up recent years that were made for home use.

has anyone gone from something like a adcom or B&K or HK or carver or any other well known common middle range amp to the class D amps and what were you thoughts.

I am waiting on a restored adcom gfa555 and a W4S St500 to compare . winner takes all looser finds new home
Class D amps are JUNK no matter what you do to them and will never come close to the class A/B preformance !!
 
Tried a Labgruppen IPD2400 earlier this year to drive the 18" subwoofers in my open-baffle setup. Decided to get that one after lots of reading reviews and marketing hype. What a nightmare that was. The amp was so noisy, where ever I placed it, it was just plain unusable. Built quality etc. was certainly not comparable to any of the 70s or 80s amps I used so far.

I was lucky that there was a problem with the display, so I returned it for a full refund. Then got very lucky and found an Accuphase P-550 for a song due to some very slight cosmetic imperfections. No problems whatsoever, and just mean fat bass all day long :)

I won't write off Class-D entirely, 'still curious to compare it with other A/B amps, but I would certainly not buy one without a solid return policy.
CLASS A/B are junk and no where near the fidelety of a class A/B amplifier , do a side by side comparison you will notice the aparent difference !!! A/B amps ROCK
 
Class D amps are JUNK no matter what you do to them and will never come close to the class A/B preformance !!
I could say you are wrong based on data and testing OR I could say you are wrong based on listening . Either way it wouldnt be a wrong or right answer because the sound is subjective. It depends on the other equipment and the room and the persons ears . the same amps will not sound exactly the same to every person even if they had all the exact same stuff in the same exact room. so many variables one can only hope to come close to being correct. what you are saying is inacurate on many levels .
 
I started this thread 6yrs ago. needless to say I have heard many amps since then. even made a couple using some of the newer class D modules .

I come to realize I could make my class D sound more like my class AB with a little EQ or a change in the source unit (preamp) . if you still think D cant sound good then you havnt tried them lately and or you might need some EQ
 
My friend has a Peachtree 125wpc class D that sounds absolutely amazing running KEF reference monitors for near field listening. So good in fact that it sounds better than 95% of the systems I have heard. Using that same class D amp he tried running a pair of PSB towers that are not that difficult to drive to fill the whole room with sound and it sounded worse than 95% of the systems I have heard. Was so thin the bass was almost totally MIA. And I have heard those towers before and they sounded great. I do not ever recall a class AB having such a wild swing in listenability between speakers.
 
A couple years ago I needed a new amp. I looked at the Class D amps. It was when some of the best class D amps were switching from FET to GaN. GaN did a switch from off to on in about half the time and with less ringing. Since I wasn't willing to shell out over $3,000 for a power amp, I bought a used NAD C272 that had been recapped.
 
I find it amusing that each time a new chip comes out people are saying how much better the new one is. The chips people were crowing about 3 generations ago are no longer recommended at all and in another generation or two todays amazing chips will get an eye roll. If it was so great 10 years ago wouldnt it still be great today? I know of class A and AB amps from 25 years ago that still sell for more than they did back when they came out, if you can find someone who is willing to depart with theirs that is.
 
I find it amusing that each time a new chip comes out people are saying how much better the new one is. The chips people were crowing about 3 generations ago are no longer recommended at all and in another generation or two todays amazing chips will get an eye roll. If it was so great 10 years ago wouldnt it still be great today? I know of class A and AB amps from 25 years ago that still sell for more than they did back when they came out, if you can find someone who is willing to depart with theirs that is.
A little like the early days of PCs. New chips, new versions of Windows, increased memory; every day after the day you bought it, your PC became increasingly obsolete.
Since then, things have settled down. I expect the same w class D amps. We'll see.
 
My speakers are Vandersteen 7.2s with 4-Ohm input impedance and low (c. 85dB IIRC) sensitivity.. The best-sounding amp I ever heard with them is my pair of somewhat-improved Atma-Sphere MA-1/3.1s, which are class-A.. These are, in fact, the best-sounding poweramps I have ever heard in my own system.. I've listened at length to A-S's Class Ds with the 7.2s, and while they were a bit challenged in dynamic range, they sounded excellent--smooth, highly resolving, not gritty or grainy, VERY musical--within their powerband.. I recently bought a used pair of Pass Labs X260.8s, current-model, class-A/B, 260-into-8 monoamps; they run in Class-A thru about 34 Watts into 8, which probably is all the power I need maybe 90% of the time.. After about 200 hours of burn-in, they sounded excellent in all respects and are now my 2nd-favorite poweramp...BUT they run so hot in their Class-A environment, they overheat my well-ventilated musicroom even in our nonsummer (I'm in Phoenix); they'll be sold soon.. In the past I've owned and sold three-different pairs of PS Audio's M1200s, and sorry that I sold them, I recovered two pairs.. Removed the '260s and installed one pair of M1200s, warmed them several hours before listening attentively, and really like what I hear.. Understand that I'm MOT a quick-hearing Golden-Eared Audiofool, I'm rather a slow-hearing fellow, so time will tell how the M1200s hold up; I suspect they'll continue to sound better over the next couple weeks; I'll let you know.

Rick@68, I disagree with you categorically.
 
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