I got the Red Dragon class D amp today and it sounds very good right out of the box, although not as fleshed out as the Nuprime and bit sibilant, but only slightly so. It has an unsightly case, as others have observed.
Still,it might be difficult to discern the Nuprime amp from the Red Dragon sonically at the moment, but I will do that comparison with 50-60 hours on the Red Dragon to be fair. Notwithstanding my enjoyment of my Dennis Had EL84 tube amp, the two class D amps are quite amazing in their power and performance in such a small package. By analogy, I think that one type of amp is like a Chardonnay and the other is like a Cabernet. I like both, but neither exclusively.
At the end of the day, I think one trades crystal clarity of the music, LF control, and dead silent background with the class D amps for the gloriously expansive, and palpable mid-range bloom of a tube amp. Neither can completely do what the other can do, yet. Gents, at the price point of any of my amps, there is no such thing as the “absolute sound”. Tube biasing and running big honking KT88’s in the summer heat of Sacramento would tilt me to the class D amp, but the Had amp with its four EL 84 tubes runs reasonably cool and needs no biasing, a hassle that I disliked with my Harmon Kardon gear. My Spatial Audio Holograms are ~93 db efficient and it bears noting that the 5 wpc Had tube amp is no less engaging than that the 250-wpc Red Dragon amp. I run the volume pot on my Don Sachs tube preamp at 12:00 with the Had amp, while the volume pot runs at 9:00 for the same SPL with both the class D amps. I have plenty of gain with any of the amps. Obviously, if you have much less efficient speakers, my discussion of the comparison with my Had amp would be irrelevant to your situation, but not with respect to the sonic differences of a tube vs. class D amp. My ears are 63 years old so take that into account. I would encourage any of you readers to compare, contrast, or refute my impressions.
The appeal of class D amplification is very easy to understand for the reasons described above. If 10 years ago I somebody had told me that class D amps would sound this excellent, I would have been dubious. Yet, to my ears, such sonic performance is easily attainable for less than $2K, or a few hundred more with the Channel Island Audio mono-blocks, which I have heard and are excellent. Several audio companies have outstanding class D integrated amps, including NAD, that provide outstanding “one component” performance.
Just my take,
Mark
Still,it might be difficult to discern the Nuprime amp from the Red Dragon sonically at the moment, but I will do that comparison with 50-60 hours on the Red Dragon to be fair. Notwithstanding my enjoyment of my Dennis Had EL84 tube amp, the two class D amps are quite amazing in their power and performance in such a small package. By analogy, I think that one type of amp is like a Chardonnay and the other is like a Cabernet. I like both, but neither exclusively.
At the end of the day, I think one trades crystal clarity of the music, LF control, and dead silent background with the class D amps for the gloriously expansive, and palpable mid-range bloom of a tube amp. Neither can completely do what the other can do, yet. Gents, at the price point of any of my amps, there is no such thing as the “absolute sound”. Tube biasing and running big honking KT88’s in the summer heat of Sacramento would tilt me to the class D amp, but the Had amp with its four EL 84 tubes runs reasonably cool and needs no biasing, a hassle that I disliked with my Harmon Kardon gear. My Spatial Audio Holograms are ~93 db efficient and it bears noting that the 5 wpc Had tube amp is no less engaging than that the 250-wpc Red Dragon amp. I run the volume pot on my Don Sachs tube preamp at 12:00 with the Had amp, while the volume pot runs at 9:00 for the same SPL with both the class D amps. I have plenty of gain with any of the amps. Obviously, if you have much less efficient speakers, my discussion of the comparison with my Had amp would be irrelevant to your situation, but not with respect to the sonic differences of a tube vs. class D amp. My ears are 63 years old so take that into account. I would encourage any of you readers to compare, contrast, or refute my impressions.
The appeal of class D amplification is very easy to understand for the reasons described above. If 10 years ago I somebody had told me that class D amps would sound this excellent, I would have been dubious. Yet, to my ears, such sonic performance is easily attainable for less than $2K, or a few hundred more with the Channel Island Audio mono-blocks, which I have heard and are excellent. Several audio companies have outstanding class D integrated amps, including NAD, that provide outstanding “one component” performance.
Just my take,
Mark