Class "D" amp? I do not have a clue. Do you?


I have been a serious audiophile for 30 years and class "D" audio is new to me. Most important, what do they sound like?
orpheus10
I too have had Bel Canto's Ref 1000's in my system. IMO their power and overall presentation seem very well designed when paired with my Eidolon's. In the June / July issue of TAS Nelson Pass gives, what I consider, an experienced and gracious opinion of class D amplification. Unfortunately, like countless other opinions it generalizes these designs as well as assuming the goal of these designs is to achieve "the qualities of good class A amplifiers."

Class D switching, digital, PCM, ICE, etc. amplifiers come in a variety of implementations. Many share some fundamental design features, still, most seem to have their own distinguishable presentation within class D. None of the class D amplifiers I've listened to at any length sounded like a push pull or SET tube, solid state, class A, AB despite others claims.

As a professional Bass player I often play raw digital pre production files as well as analog recorded tapes. What my switching amplifiers do for me is provide an unbelievably revealing and transparent presentation ( what could easily be termed as sterile ) and the most well defined bass. I've found their most unusual quality is their ability to preform at their full output capacity without becoming congested or fatiguing. It's as if they're passing current directly to the drivers. In short they sound like switching amplifiers and their presentation is not for everyone.

My suggestion is to do your own auditioning using robust copper interconnect, speaker, and power cable and an up to date dedicated and shielded AC circuit. Switching to a battery powered preamplifier took my system to another level altogether.
Readers please note that the BEl Canto ref1000 and ref1000m (or mkii as the ref100m has also been called)are two significantly different designs that reprotedly sound different and may work differently in different system configurations. Be sure you know exactly which design is being referred to.

When vendors change a design but only alter the model names slightly, things can be confusing. USing two different designations for the same design (re1000m and ref1000mkii) only makes thnings worse.
Stringreen, please explain your statement. I don't see anywhere on the Vandersteen website or the user manual's where it's stated not to use class D amps.
When I acquired my ref100ms used, the seller kindly obliged me and opened up the boxes to confirm the specific design. I f I were to pay a premium for that model, which I did, I wanted to be certain that the right guts were in there and not just rely on a model label on the rear casing.

Yes, the dc offset deal is news to me. Some explanation of what that is and why it might be an issue with some speakers and class D would be educational.
DC offset can harm your tweeter, depending on the tweeter design and degree of DC Offset

DC offset present in class D amplifiers and all other amplifiers which do not use output capacitors e.g. Plinius.

Before you purchase your amplifier check the specs. Spectron' specs is 10 mV but as a rule its 3 - 4 mV and its all harmless e.g. drives very well Vandersteen speakers.

When discussing different class D amplifiers, my suggestion is to pay more attention to the power supplies which drive it. There are a number of factors influencing class D amp sound We have posted a paper on our web site which hopefully provides some light:

http://spectronaudio.com/tech1.htm

Good Luck,

Simon