The Truth about Modern Class D

Is this old rerun rehash stuff   Some of this reminds me I read it before No way?

I am in the IT field and I worked in computer retail for awhile in the 90's.  Sometimes I would have people come in and they were what I came to call "specced out" and suffered analysis paralysis.  I still remember this one guy, over 20 years ago.  He wanted the fastest hard drive.  We carried a certain brand and he would bring in spec sheets for other brands.  This one was .5ms faster in read time, this other one was 1ms faster in write time.  He wasn't going to see a difference, but the SPECS! 

I feel like a lot of people are like this about class D.  It CAN'T be as good as Class A because of dead time or switching, or whatever.  Just like the guys that pop up in threads (usually amps) and say it can't sound good because it didn't measure as well as this other amp.  

I have a little bit of everything: tube, SS, and class D.  My class D is a Peachtree Nova 220SE.  I like it a lot and over the last 18 months it has gotten more and more time in my main system.  I do have some vintage McIntosh stuff too, their first SS stuff and it sounds great as well.  After I recapped the 2505, it sounded amazing.  If I listen critically, there are definitely differences, but it is hard to say what is "best."

I have enjoyed reading this thread, but I choose to trust my ears.  I don't care about dead time or switching, or whatever else.  I want it to sound good.  If it sounds better because you have fixed those issues, then great!  I do think Class D is the future and it will only continue to get better.  But I am getting ready to build a single ended tube amp, so maybe I am crazy :)

georgehifi

We had better quote some noted designers as well.

Bob Carver
"I built many of them right here in my own laboratory with the thought they could and would fulfill that final promise.... I was never able to build a Class D amplifier that sounded as good as a linear one."

John Curl (Parasound, CTC, Vendetta Research, Constellation)
"Some version of hybrid Class A/D looks like the future in optimum audio design."

and so on...

Most if not all of those comments were published 5 years ago - from what I have read much progress has been made meanwhile.

George I clicked on the GaN link you provided, Alas, it does not account for XLR