I see quite a few people here have PS Audio amps and are happy with them. I have heard various PS Audio kit and currently have three of their Power Plants along with a DAC and an older phono stage: I'm delighted by the quality and price. My daughter and I visited them at their previous location in Boulder CO (they moved across the street a few weeks ago), and they are not only dedicated to the craft they are remarkably friendly and accessible. A few years ago I inadvertently damaged one of my PS Audio remotes, I called them and they sent a free replacement. This is a company that values their customers and is committed to quality and value. Musically, I am delighted with the products.
Which Class D Amplifier? PS Audio, Ghent, Nord, Merrill or other???
I’m looking for a new amp & want Class D.
I’ve seen various brands mentioned, such as PS Audio, Ghent, Nord, Merrel to name a few, but I’ve not heard any of them.
Which company is producing the best sounding Class D?
Which models should I be looking to demo?
Thanks
I’ve seen various brands mentioned, such as PS Audio, Ghent, Nord, Merrel to name a few, but I’ve not heard any of them.
Which company is producing the best sounding Class D?
Which models should I be looking to demo?
Thanks
416 responses Add your response
I never considered Class D until some very respected folks on this site recommended I put Lyngdorf in my rotation of amps I was auditioning. To my amazement it sounded better than any of the analog solid state or tube amps it met. This was a consensus across a very diversified group of individuals I use to sample my upgrades in progress. Even LTA with full upgrades didn't compete. Give Lyngdorf a try. It will also save you the cost of a D/A converter too. It was also superior with analog inputs. That was an ever bigger surprise. |
I had Nuforce Reference 9 V3 but think they lack some "flesh" on music, Bel Canto and a Halcro MC20 were a little bit better but not perfect to my ears. I have now two Lindemann Musicbook 55 bridged and love everything they give from low to highs and for the holographic soundstage.This brand is famous in germany and Europe, if you have an occasion to listen I think you apreciate. http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/lindemannproac-system/?page=2 |
Lots of great recommendations on here. I own Wyred 4 Sound ST-500 mk 2 and enjoy it a lot. I've had it for 3 years now and can't complain a bit. They have a 30 day audition period so not much risk there if you want to dip your toe into that water. My dad, who has been an audiophile for about 50 years, has lived with Bel Canto REF500 for about 12 years now and that says a lot to me. He has the best sounding system I've ever heard, but I am admittedly biased. Recently, I've been looking into an all-in-one box system for convenience purposes and discovered a few more intriguing class D options to include: Peachtree (didn't see this mentioned above), Classe Sigma series (saw that one above), Lyngdorf (TDAI has room correction which could be of good benefit). Please let us know where you land! |
Don't forget https://www.elac.com/product/dpa-1m-monoblock-digital-power-amplifier/ I listened to these and thought they were very good |
Gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors may be desired over silicon carbide (SiC) for power transistor applications because of the greater bandgap of GaN’s 3.4 eV compared to SiC’s of 1.1 ev, but there still exists a fundamental challenge of not being able to grow pure GaN crystals any larger than about 2". This is a limiting factor from a manufacturing standpoint for the general uptake of GaN in power applications; most manufacturers have to use a doped version which is poorer performing and more expensive compared to pure SiC crystals, which can be grown to double and larger sizes. Also, gallium is a rare earth element, silicon, um, not so much. |
Thanks again guys! Some great suggestions. I’ve got plenty to go at & will be hearing a few over the next few weeks. I wrote a big long thread cataloging my Class D/T history, but my browser must have refreshed & lost it. Lesson learned, I’ll cut & paste from a word doc in future. I’ll rewrite it when I have time. |
Hello tweak1, You stated: " noble/Tim FYI: I had 2 EP 100.2SEs (with upgraded fuses) for well over a year. I got the bug and bought a Audio Alchemy DPA-1 stereo amp. It is much richer in the midrange and bass, deeper and more holographic sound stage= much closer to real music." Good to know, I'm always interested in learning about other good class D amps. Thanks. I currently use my EP 100.2SE in bridged mode to power my Magnepan CC3 center channel speaker and my ClassD Audio unit in stereo mode to power my rear surrounds for HT usage. I have no current complaints but I'm always open to upgrades in performance. Lots of very good class D options now available that I'd like to audition. Thanx, Tim |
I have heard the ML NO.53 a couple of times,So have I, and the problems in the upper mids and tops while a bit different are there, they are also in similar way in all other class-D's I've heard. I have not heard the Technics SE-R1 nor the Merrill Element 118, but the mids/highs areas of concern with Class-D that many hear, seem to be the areas they say they have addressed, which makes me very hopeful they are leading the way, to make Class-D hiend. |
For a very honest product, within the UK, try Temple Audio from around Manchester. I did a similar research one year ago and considering my limited budget I ordered a pair of their monoblocks. I'm very satisfied and don't feel the hitch to change. Just took me a while finding a nice matching preamp... And they make everything in house, from the amplification modules (proprietary, not ICE or Ncore or whatever) to the casing. They even let you personalise the cases - choosing the metal finishing and engravings. And one more thing, a very important one: the customer care is outstanding! Talk to John and he will answer all your questions. http://www.templeaudio.net/index.html |
eHello George, I have heard the ML NO.53 a couple of times, and... I agree 200% with the reviewer, for all parameters he mentioned.... To say that I did not like it would be an understatement. If all other class D amps sounded like No.53, I would have never bothered adopting this class of operation in my system.... Thankfully, No.53 is an outlyer. THere are of course other class D amps that I have not cared for, but No.53 takes the cake, particularly at its nose-bleeding price point. But George, haven't you learned yet that one cannot perform valid induction steps from a couple of anomalous samples? As I said so many times.... Get out of the house, lots of nice stuff out there... Besides, who knows, you might even fall in love with No.53 *Grins!* G.
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@georgehifiBut it still does not compete with the best linear amps. I am also in this camp. As a builder of audio components my partner and I have discussed making Class-D amps or anything similar. So far, we cannot come up with anything that is better. We recently built a pure class A power amp about 30wpc and it was killer. Cost me about $600 to build one. I recently heard the NuFocre (not the newest model) but an upgraded (with 5 watt power supply) and it was supposed to be really good. But in direct comparison in my system it lasted less than a minute. Just did nothing special and was not very musical. Just my two cents. If I was going to by a Class-D amp I would buy one that was reliable, could be serviced is needed and spend the least amount of money on it. But that's just me, I'm cheap! Happy Listening. |
Class D has come a long way compared to a few years agoNo it hasn’t! Mark Levinson had a good expensive dig and tried to cure it’s evils, with the $50kusd !!! No.53 monoblocks, which had massive series output filters to rid the switching frequency from it’s outputs, but they them selves bought a different set of problem to the table compared to all the filters others manufacturers use. https://www.stereophile.com/content/mark-levinson-no53-reference-monoblock-power-amplifier-specifica... https://www.stereophile.com/images/1212levin.side.jpg Again even with these, it’s the mid/tops that had ? on them, but as per usual with Class-D the bass was great. " They resolved a remarkable amount of genuine detail but were harmonically threadbare, sounded somewhat hard and mechanical on top, and had a hazy overlay just below that. The bass was fast, lean, taut, and well damped—rhythm’n’pacing were among the No.53’s strongest suits. But overall, the nature of the sound induced listening fatigue. I rarely listened for more than an hour at a time, which for me is unusual." The only "real" advancement of Class-D has been the introduction of the new GaN transistor which Technics introduced in to their SE-R1 and Merrill Audio is now doing with their Element 118, these promise to lower dead time and have a greater far reduction of the switching frequency with the filter without affecting the audio band. Cheers George |
Unless you've actually had Monkey Plague, you really can't say much about it. @wolf_garcia Whats YOUR contribution to this thread? Current Class D has come a long way compared to a few years ago, who wouldn't want good amplification which is more efficient, takes up less space, runs cooler... and is possibly better value depending on which manufacturer you choose. |
I don't know if the PS Audio Class D amps are the right solution for your system. But I have their s300, at this point I am really happy. PS Audio made me a great deal on my used amp and I had a trial period with the new S300. Don't have any experience with Classe but There is CA-D200 on ebay for $1.8K claimed to be brand new in box. Although located in Vestal, NY. Classe still has the D200 listed as product on their website. 3 year old review. https://classeaudio.com/pdfs/Reviews/TAS%20CP-800%20CA-200%20Review%20Aug%202015.PDF |
Hi Everyone and Happy New years,
My audio distribution company has been A/B products for many years and a very good client of mine alerted me to very good sounding Class D last year because he said his big reference tube amplifiers had been outperformed by a set of used Class D amplifiers that he purchased as back up amplifiers. This client has great ears, a great system and lots of passion. I laughed because the last Class D amplification I heard, 5 years ago, was real average. But out of curiosity I contacted the Class D manufacture that my client liked and they agreed to sell me a set of amplifiers.
At the time my reference mono block amplifiers were $25K and I considered them very musical. After playing and direct A/B testing my reference Class A/B mono blocks over many years, I realized my reference amps did a lot of things really well but certainly, they were not perfect. I received the new Class D mono blocks about 2 weeks later and I had very low expectations after my first experience with the Class D amplification. All I can say is the new Class D amplifiers were not slightly better than my reference mono blocks, they were the next level and fully outperformed my reference amplifiers in every category. When this sort of thing happens, it really makes you question your audio intelligent. I was 100% sure my system was previously reproducing the original soundtracks correctly but with these new Class D amps there was another layer of music. Every song or track sounded new. The separation of the different singers and instruments were much more defined. Live instruments sounded more live and had more decay. Everything I heard at medium volumes could be heard at low volumes. There was more soul in my system but it was based on the amplifiers being more transparent and not injecting their own sound. This was very different than my previous experience with Class D amplification.
The main reason I have posted is because we now have 3 different Class D amplifiers that we are testing and another 3 different Class D amplifiers will be delivered to us in the next 3-6 weeks. I can already tell from the first 3 Class D amplifiers, that there are different levels of Class D. For the record when we test new products, we test on 5 very different systems. In this aspect you get 5 different honest opinions, 5 different listening rooms, 5 different types of systems, 5 different environments and lots of different types of music. It really can be fun.
At some point I would like to come back and give you our finding but best thing I can say right now is there are different levels of Class D, just like other types of amplifications and you need to decide what level Class D is best for you and your budget. I can say for sure that if you think Class D is not among the best sounding amplifiers in the world, than you have not done your homework or actually listened to current Class D.
PS; I have no invested interest in any Class D products as we do not carry any Class D products as of YET!
Bob at Worldwide Wholesales. |
+1 on the Nord Acoustics, have the NC500 Monoblocks, I'm happy. You can also customize their sound slightly with interchangeable buffer boards and op-amps. Mine have the Rev C. buffer boards, but I see there is a Rev D. buffer board recently released. It seems like an easy process to swop them out. I like that the amps are "user" upgradeable to a certain degree. Compact, light and runs warm to the touch even after some heavy listening. |
Although I haven't personally heard any premium class D amplifiers, I believe that GaN will be a key technology and market driver. For those of you unaware of GaN (or would rather just listen than geek out!), here's my analogy ... Non GaN transistors aren't as fast as GaN so it's kind of like listening to MP3's at a lower versus higher bit rate. Personally I believe this is a great development for HEA. Without getting into the differences between amplifier classes, GaN (at least on paper) should more accurately reproduce wave forms and require less filtering and other processing. With faster transistors we should get better sounding (hopefully great sounding) amps that are cheaper, lighter and more efficient. Maybe then the ear bud generation will learn to appreciate great sound and expand the market. To be clear I believe that linear amplification with the proper components will always be better. Personally I'm anxious to watch the market over the next 18 months. If the big guys (Yamaha, Marantz ...) start buying/using GaN in greater volumes prices will drop. This would enable the brands frequently noted here to focus on improving the processing mechanisms for even better sound. For what it's worth. |
Like I said, I think you can´t go wrong with Nord. Hulgich Audio, an australian speaker company, won the Best Sound Award in a HiFi Show on 2017 in Australia and second place in 2018, using Nord One Up Mono Amps and competing with system costing hundreds of thousands. I think for the price is a no brainer. |
I've heard the Devialet at a show and they sounded good to me. I am sure there are other good class-D amps also. https://www.devialet.com/en-us/expert-pro-audio-system/ |
I reviewed the Benchmark Media DAC3 DX and AHB2 Amplifier for dagogo.com. The amp is superior to all the class D amps I have tried/reviewed in the past. Superb cleanness, resolution, highly commendable sound at a very reasonable price. It also has a gain feature that allows better matching with speakers than the class D amps I used. Note that it does not have RCA inputs, and uses either Neutrik and Benchmark cables, or Pos/Neg posts for alternative cables. I discuss this all in the review. |
Good nod for Merrill, LKV Research, and we personally own Wyred 4 Sound SX1000 Monoblock amps. They have been great for me and our Magico A3's. They have been very reliable and affordable for the performance they give. The SX1000R's are even better. The LKV integrated also offers a lot for the $$ too. |
+1 to Nord I have the Nord One UP NC500DM stereo amp and it outperfoms in EVERY field my previously beloved 300B valve integrated (use as a power amp) Line Magnetic LM-508IA, wich is a very nice class A valve amp, very popular among audiophiles and cost almost 3 times the Nord. Besides that, if you are in UK, may be you can visit Colin to test his products. |
I like Stevecham am enjoying my M700's .They can't be beat for the price. Collectively, a system costs are considerable so when you can get great performance and save a few to put into other areas in your rack you can get better balance. Steve, I would highly recommend getting a Furutech IEC and AMR fuses for the M700's. Those 2 tweeks made a considerable difference. The AMR fuses are awesome. I preferred them to all the others I've tried including all Synergistic fuses. Trust me. |
+1 Nuforce/Nuprime, particularly with Bob Smith's TDDS factory authorized mods. I had their monobloc Reference 9V3Se, then Reference 20 and Now Evolution One. Have heard many other class D and these are best I have heard. Disclosure, my Reference 20's are up for sale here, but with sale pending. They also use an original design versus standard or modified chips |
Nord Acoustics, when you call talk to Colin North he will fill you in on whatever you want info wise and set you up with a great deal, plus they Nord are in the UK.
Products - Nord Acoustics
Nord One SE MKII
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Lyndorf. You mean digital amp. Class D is one sort. Lyngdorf is far better and uses Pulse Width Modulation. See their website: lyngdorfaudio.com. Peter previously owned TacT audio and has been manufacturing these types of amps for 20 years. And they mate perfectly with his Pre-room correction products and now integrated products too. Best of all is that they can utilize digital and analog inputs, even HDMI. Better overall product than even Bel Canto at a portion of the price! As I said, all class D is is a digital amplifier. Pro audio uses those everywhere. There’s a world of difference here. |
To date, I've used 3 different class D amps on my fairly inefficient and older Magnepan 2.7QR speakers (87db @1 watt): ClassD Audio SDS-CS440 stereo amp. 44O W/CH at 4 ohms. Emerald Physics EP-100.2SE stereo amp. 150 W/CH at 4 ohms. D-Sonic M600 M3-600M mono block amps. 1,200 W/CH at 4 ohms. All drove my speakers well, have a decidedly neutral and accurate sound quality with noticebly better bass response and dynamics than my prior and decent quality class AB amps (McCormack and Aragon). I'm currently using the D-Sonic on them because they sound the best to me due to the superior 3-D sound staging, life-like dynamic impact, tonal balance and the overall sense that you are at the venue or the musicians are in my room. D-Sonic has replaced the M3-600M monos with their M3a-600M model which the owner, Dennis Deacon, stated now utilizes newer Pascal class D modules instead of the original's Abletec/Anaview modules for what he described as a subtle improvement. I've listened to the Bel Canto Design Ref600M amps in a friend's system and they are also very good with an overall sound quality that's very similar to the original D-Sonic. Please list your system, needs and budget for more specific suggestions. Thanx, Tim |
