GaN-based Class D power amps
It is not clear whether the cheaper Technics is a digital amp or a class D amp. Really??, it's Class-D. If you need proof under "Design" 3rd paragraph down. https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews/amplifier/integrated-amplifiers/technics-su-g30-network-audio-am... I finally got a response from Soundigital and they said they are $800 and have warehouse stock in Florida.Sounds like a viable re-badging/re-casing project. |
What it says is that the "output stage" is class D......it does not say how it is driven. Class D and Digital both use the same switching output stage. It is how it is driven that differentiates them (at least, to me). All the info on the SE-R1 says nothing about the 24/192 A2D converter used on the analog inputs. It is only stated in the review I posted. And Technics did not say it was wrong info. So, is there an A2D converter on the analog inputs of the cheaper Technics? We have yet to find out. If it has one....then it is a digital amp. Hey nothing wrong with converting analog to digital. But, it is one more process and everything you do adds distortion. If it is done to the Nth degree then great. Do you think Panasonic would make the worlds most transparent A2D converter? If you use normal op amps on the input of your A2D converter then you have loss. You would want sonically superior discrete circuits, super sounding resistors, caps, state of the art power supplies, dual mono, etc. |
ricevs, you might be over-reading the review a bit. I interpret the Technics design architecture (from the Technics website) to reflect a configuration comprising a DAC, an analog Preamp and Class D Amp. The digital inputs are fed to the DAC for conversion to analog signals. The preamp section processes and amplifies all analog signals from both the DAC and analog inputs before sending them to the GaN-FET driver stage of the amp section. |
It is not clear whether the cheaper Technics is a digital amp or a class D amp. I will use these terms because it is very clear. A digital amp takes the analog signal and coverts it to PCM though an A2D converter and then converts it to PWM. A class D amp takes an analog signal and converts it directly to PWM. The only way I found out the larger Technics amp was a digital amp was to read the very clear review I linked to.A class D amp is class D whether or not its driven by a DAC. Pulse Width Modulation is an analog process that some Class D amps use. But that is only one encoding scheme and class D amps have at least three; the other two are Pulse Code Modulation and self-oscillating. There is no such thing as a ’digital amp’. All ’digital amps’ are actually class D amps with a digital front end. |
