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Class D is affordable and sounds as good or better the SS/Valve why buy anything else ?

I have spent a fair amount of my hard earned money on big ticket brand new SS and VT/Valve amplifiers over the years without hesitation, with state of the art 2019 class D amplifiers becoming cheaper and sounding better, i wouldn't join in again.

For older technology amplifiers SS VT/Valve to compete with State of the art class D, Their prices are going up and up.

One example is Pilium Audio from Greece or Bulgaria their Divine Line the prices are all over £100,000 for their pre amps and power amps, I know the UK importer he said they sound OK,

Another example FM Acoustics again up to and over £100,000 for pre and power amps. i have owned FM Acoustics pre and power again their OK,

I am not saying they do not sound good, i am saying why spend this much when state of the art class D probably sounds as good now and can only improve with the GaN capacitors and is nearly up to 100 times cheaper.

Is there still a market for multi thousand £$s SS or VT/Valve amplifiers ?

When class D finally overtakes SS VT/Valves what will people do with their multi thousand £$ amplifiers, keep them knowing there is something better ? Or will we see the market flood with exotic used amplifiers ?

Digital technology is rapidly growing pace and becoming cheaper, with GaN capacitors being introduced the sound is going to get better and better and will slowly or quickly become even more affordable.

If you had 50,000 to spend on an Amplifier, would you buy a high ticket SS amplifier and hope for the best ?

Would you stay safe and go with high ticket valve amp, class D can never match good valves right ?

Or would you sit tight and see how the GaN capacitors can further improve the performance of state of the art class D ?

Please feel free to join in, everybody is welcome, i think its a very delicate/touchy discussion for some people with big bucks invested in older type amplifiers.
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miveraaudio
111 posts
 
Well I’m afraid to say you’re behind the times when it comes to the current state of ultra high end audio. Today’s best class D outperforms every other type of amps available. A few years ago I came up with the now widely used concept of using rollable class A discrete opamps to voice the input stage of class D amps to personal taste. This resulted in 1000’s of old school audiophiles dumping class A and tubes for amps such as the Nord one up.

But now with advanced DSP integrated into SOTA digital input class D amps, there’s far far more flexibility to voice to taste. Regardless of your personal taste in sound, the next generation of digital input class D amps can be voiced in the digital domain to your exact taste, and room acoustics. You can stop wasting money on cables, preamps, tube buffers etc to voice your gear. The amp can do it all. And far better. And if you get board of the sound, just change the profile rather than dump at a big loss and replace with something different. 
inna
5,245 posts
 
Almost none here will agree with you.
gratefuleric
11 posts
 
All this debate about amplifiers and systems costing $50k is meaningless as I will never be in that league.
That being said I have been on a steady trajectory upwards for 45 yrs from my Sansui 1000a tube and Altec speakers to my new love the Peachtree Nova 300 with its exquisite DAC and incredible soundstage. I've listened to systems, both SS and valves costing 10x as much but I've never heard better than this. 

seanheis1
359 posts
 
Class D is like a DAC. They keep getting better as the tech improves, making older generations obsolete.

Class A is a much more mature technology, with better often times being different. The best Class A from 30 years ago is better than the best Class D of today.

Class D only exists for efficiency. Square waves and pulse width modulation is not hifi. Why bother with a bit perfect source signal if you are just going to chop it up and filter it...leaving behind some of the good with the bad...resulting in a thin hollow sound?
miveraaudio
111 posts
 
Which of the latest crop of class D amps have you personally auditioned to come to this conclusion? Because if you’re basing this on objective performance alone, that would also be false. Class D has surpassed class A a while ago now. 
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