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.
128x128Ag insider logo xs@2xtownshend-audio
Miveraaudio,
Well, honestly I havent heard any Nord 1200AS amp. I have no idea how do they sound compared to the NC500 amps.
Nevertheless, on Audioshark forum, if I remember correctly, some users have and prefered the NC500.
What I read on that forum, and mostly the advice of Nicolás Hulgich, the owner of Hulgich Audio, the australian speaker brand I mentioned, an argentinian like me, helped me decide to buy the NC500. At first I bought the Rev C boards as the Rev D were not offered that time, but then Colin Nord offered us, the owners of recently bought NC500DM, a cheap upgrade to Rev D version, and I took the chance and I bought it. Im glad I did as I liked very much the Rev C boards, but the new ones are better.

I dont want to sound like a Nord seller. I only think that Class D Amps should be take into account when you are in this hobby, mostly if you are on a budget or, like me, you live in a country where importing audio is expensive due to taxes. Another brands (Mola Mola, Nuprime, Wyred4sound, etc) also have very good reviews among audiophiles everywhere.

It is also true that Ive heard a very expensive system (about 100.000k), Bang and Olufsen, wich used class D amplification, and sounded very bad. It had an incredible bass (fast, deep, Power ful, etc), may be the best Ive heard, but it also had barely no image, sounded harsh, terrible.


“State of the art amplifiers is now class D.”

 @select-hifi

Kindly list the manufacturers that are currently building SOTA class D amps.
@ PLGA:

The guy you were referring to on the Audioshark thread was Marty. He thought he preferred the NC-500 with REV D buffers at first, but after more critical listening, he changed his mind. But he didn’t post that part on the same thread. But he did on others, one of which I shared a link to.

The NC-500’s with a good buffer is a great amp, but myself along with a dozen or so Nord NC-500 owners, who are now my 1200AS based amp clients, prefer the Icepower 1200AS. If anyone is looking for a Nord NC-500 amp cheap, one of my Purepower clients has been trying to sell his Nord NC-500 monoblocks for months here:

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=161211.0
Hypex has also released their NC-2.5K for all OEM's, along with the NC1200. But keep in mind these modules came out in 2011. They are not new technology. Bruno Putzeys, the brains behind those amps has moved on from Hypex, and is now working on digital input class D amps, DSP, and active speakers. He's one guy who knows where the future lies. His latest project is with a team of some of the best brains in audio:
https://www.purifi-audio.com

I can assure you that they won't be releasing any tube amps or preamps.