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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
 
It’s just not black and white like that. These colorations are purposely built into amplifiers to make them more forgiving. This is a strategy that is constantly done with class D amplifiers as well with different input buffers. Even if it drastically reduces the fidelity. Take the PS Audio Stellar 700 amps for example. The stock 700AS modules they use have a dynamic range of 117db. but after PS Audio put’s their magic "Analog cell" input buffer in front of them, it drops 17db down to 100. Why do they do this? To make it more forgiving with the source gear that will likely get paired with an amp at that price point. Well and also because the 700AS modules aren’t that great. They still use circa 2004 ICCX technology.

The point I was making is if your goal is extreme fidelity, it’s easy to achieve for cheap with the latest and best class D. Or you could go for something like an $80000 Solution and achieve it with class A as well.

I can assure you if you paired a Solution amp with the cheap DAC’s and preamps most people who criticize class D, listen to class D amps through, they would probably say the Solution sucks as well.

The price/performance of class D is so much higher than the rest of the audio gear in most peoples systems these days. So the best class D amps aren’t getting the same input quality as an amp like an $80000 Solution would get. Put an Icepower 1200AS based amp into a $200000 rig and then peoples eyes will open.
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townshend-audio OP
49 posts
 
I would like to state i am currently enjoying my music collection using class D with passive pre amp, the combination cost is approx 4500 gbp which i feel with this level of performance is exceptional, i am very happy and have no interest in changing to find out if i can match performance with similar priced SS or valves, obviously great valves are great valves and great SS is great SS but the question is at what prices are they great and can they compete with what i am hearing. 
Its not just amplifiers i am in the process of buying a DAC, the one i am drawn to is the PS Audio Direct Stream quoting 20 x DSD, on paper that seems extraordinary if i have read that right.
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townshend-audio OP
49 posts
 
seanheis1

You are completely wrong,
My class D amps do not have a thin hollow sound,

What are you listening to to make that statement ?
tweak1
870 posts
 
I owned a hi-end retail company in decades past. I owned a lot of amps (SS & Valve; even a Gain Cell amp) but I looked into the future and started getting on board the class D train, first with W4S monos, then stereo, then their multi-channel, followed by Emerald Physics 100.2SEs + upgraded fuses (IMO they lacked midrange warmth). Next up was Audio Alchemy DPA-1 stereo amp (it is a terrific amp, but not powerful enough for my extra large room) I now have PS Audio M700s (MSRP $3995 the pair!). These are the best amps I have had with the possible exception of a Kinergetics KBA 75 (> 10 years ago), which made the electric meter spin at high rpm. Clearly class A or A/B consume a ton of power and probably internal parts

I have no doubt GaN will bring more to the hobby, but for <$4K Im more than happy wth the PSA M700s
douglas_schroeder
1,824 posts
 
Fyi, I didn't read all the posts, but the Benchmark AHB2 is not class A/B. It is a new design called Class AAA and was developed in conjunction with THX. It outperformed all the class D amps I reviewed. You can see my review of it at dagogo.com

I still am using the AHB2 and it is capable of stunning sound quality. I run them in Mono mode and it is glorious. One of the best setups is the Exogal Comet DAC running Schroeder Method ICs (see discussion on the thread that bears my name, and the seminal article regarding Schroeder Method at dagogo.com) direct into the amps and using either the software volume control or the Comet's internal pre. 

However, dismissing class A or A/B is shortsighted. These amps are also improving over time. It's not like they are frozen and can't compete. That's a stilted perspective, imo.  
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