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Are Class D Amps scaring the hell out of the BIG Boys ?

IMO, good is good, bad is bad. What do I care if it's a heavy class A amp, a moderately heavy class A/B, or a light weight class D? I'm not actually holding the amp, it's sitting on a shelf, so as long as it sounds good and doesn't weigh so much that the shelf can't support it, I couldn't care less the "class" of operation an amp uses as long as it sounds good & keeps working for a while.

...Now, curmudgeon rant over, I do think class D amps are becoming a viable alternative, but they still don't seem to have swept all their competitors off the market. Over the last 20+ years I've heard so many claims that they "had arrived", only to be less than impressed when auditioned. I suspect they are getting close, maybe even passing more conventional designs now, but I've yet to be turned. I shop with my ears open as much as possible and I'll be listening to more class D amps next time I'm in the market, but I give no guarantees that I'll be pulled over to them.
 
Frommerstop, there are two used XLS 2500 amps at the Guitar Center located in Roseville, Michigan (zip 48066) that are supposedly in 5 star condition. They're asking too much for them, but if they'll drop the price you ought to check one out and return it in 30 days if you aren't convinced.
 
I auditioned a Primare i32 integrated driving Thiel CS 1.7 and 2.7s and was very pleased with the result. I wouldn't mind owning a Primare at all.
 
Dr. Morbius said:
Frommerstop, there are two used XLS 2500 amps at the Guitar Center located in Roseville, Michigan (zip 48066) that are supposedly in 5 star condition. They're asking too much for them, but if they'll drop the price you ought to check one out and return it in 30 days if you aren't convinced.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip... I might just do that.
Actually, the guy I bought my Crown ES224s from was running a pair of XLS 2500s (I think - could have been another model in that line) to actively bi-amp them when I came to listen. The sound was good enough that I went ahead and bought the speakers, but other than the built in crossovers, I didn't really get too exited by the amps. I've far out shined that system running the same speakers with Luxman & Spectral in my basement, but then I've had time to tailor the room/speakers/electronics to what I like. Of course the short audition in a stranger's room wasn't a fair test of the amps, not being familiar with the room or system at the time. Maybe I should revisit the XLS amps... they didn't seem to do anything "wrong" and they are well priced for their power output.
 
Old thread - but still very relevant so here goes...

I am running Gallo Ref 3.1's - which have a capacitive tweeter, in addition to the woofer dropping to very low impedance...

My efforts with a 140W/ch Class AB Receiver (Onkyo TX-SR876), Class AB 140W/ch amps (Quad 606) - and permutations and combinations of these (I have two 606's, the Receiver can be bridged, and various combinations of receiver and amps can be used for biamping) - were all ultimately not quite satisfying.

My previous speakers were Quad ESL989's, and the Gallo's never quite managed to seperate out the instruments in highly complex symphonic music during crescendos.... (everything else they seemed fine with...)

Anthony Gallo demo's his speakers with the 500W Spectron's - but these were a bit pricey for me (although I did toy with the idea) - so I was looking for some serious "Grunt" - and I thought I would try the XLS2500 on the bottom end for the woofers second voice coil.

That worked admirably - and I was immediately impressed by tight tuneful bass, which I measured down to 20Hz - all without any fuss - very impressive!.

Then I tried them on full range, and I compared them to my various other amping options - hallelujah, the Gallo speakers were finally competitive with the sound I used to get with my ESL989's (which left the house due to WAF - they were too overwhelming in the main room..)

So I purchased another XLS2500 for the bottom end - effect was subtle/slight and probably overkill.

I do think class D amps are very sensitive to speaker types, and their vagaries (impedance/capacitance variation etc...) - but in this case, it appears to be a match made in heaven.

I would love to hear other comparisons particularly from people running Gallo speakers!

The Quad 606's I have are excellent, and sounded fabulous into the ESL's. I have in the past also used them into various "box" speakers - with great results, but they just weren't up to the Gallo's.
It seems that that last little bit of detail at high SPL's is only available (on these speakers) with very serious power levels, which are not available at a reasonable price on anything other than class D amps. (we are talking 400W+ at 8ohm doubling into 4ohm and again into 2ohm)

A number of people have compared the Hypex Ncore's to the XLS, and found them better - but I wonder whether the difference is speaker related or whether it is in fact absolute? (at more than 4x the price, one would hope they would be better...)

My other ClassD experiments have been with the little T-Ams a few years back, which do remarkable things for 15W amps, but are a whole different category.

bye for now

David
 
One of latest chip sets from Texas Instruments, the TPA3110 and little brother of the TPA3116.

9 watts of bliss and not to be confused with t-amps.

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Class D taking the Audio World by storm - Again :)

FWIW - Stereophile Mag's Budget 'Product of the Year' is a Class D powered NAD D3020
 
I owned a Peachtree Decco65 integrated which I thought sounded really nice. Class D 65 watt @ 8 ohm / 95 watt @ 4 ohm.
 
Class D is sonically just as good as or even better than SS to me.

And it's energy efficient, small in size, cheap & runs cool.

I can see how SS will walk the same path as CDs as opposed to digital files, while vinyl & tubes continue to survive forming their own niche market.
 
The Class D thing has done a good job of shaking up the market and introducing more people to decent quality sound.

I think most most open minded members of the hifi upper crust bought a Dayton or a Trends or whatever to see what the fuss was about and moved on to the next thing.
 
Bel Canto, Jeff Rowland, Channel Islands, Devialet etc not high crust enough?

Sent from my X10a using Tapatalk 2
 
I heard some of the Bel Cantos pushing Magnepans several years ago - sounded pretty incredible, and I don't usually like Magnepans.

So yes, good point.
 
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