Did audiogon's favorite hypocrite just use the pot/kettle idiom? That's classic.
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.
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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- 285 posts total
Perhaps I should be a bit more clear about the data I've collected over the last 4 years regarding today's class D technology. Back in 2015, after several months of tweaking an NC-500 based amp, I decided to publicly disclose an input buffer design using discrete class A opamps that are rollable to adapt the amp to personal taste and system synergy. the first to adopt this buffer design was Colin at Nord. Colin went on to sell well over a million dollars worth of amplifiers using this buffer design. Massive resource here on how that went on the most successful thread in Audioshark history: https://www.audioshark.org/amplifiers-8/nord-one-up-ncore-nc500-amps-class-d-ready-prime-time-9369.h... Currently 5-6 companies world wide are using this buffer design in their commercial NC-500 based amps. And I estimate around 2.5 million USD in combined sales between them all. And close to 100% positive feedback. This is some substantial data collected here! Next up I went on to selling over 200 Icepower 1200AS amplifiers, and so far the feedback has been the best that I've seen yet from any new amplifier technology. My next phase is moving into digital input class d technology. And it's by far the most exciting yet! |
I like the Nelson Pass idea of adding a little mojo back into the soup with his 2nd harmonic generator. Distortion yes, but musical seemingly, and the idea goes a long way toward helping people get why tubes sound more musical or lifelike than other designs. I like the sound of my single ended tube amp over any SS A/B or D amp I've heard, and although its limitations keep me in the efficient speaker camp I simply don't care...class D is an obvious choice for pro stuff in, for example, phased array lightweight powered speaker systems that are at live shows everywhere, but clearly I prefer tubes for serious musical enjoyment. Perhaps designers should stick a switchable 2nd harmonic gizmo in their amps to allow listeners to decide what's what. Note that I own an Ampeg class D bass amp, but I've also used a gigantic Ampeg SVT tube head (and other various bass amps over many years) and man...although it's a beast, the SVT does sound MUCH better. |
It's becoming clear that very few folks around here have experience with today's class D. And it's understandable why. It hasn't made it into any big brand commercial products yet. The reason why is because it takes a couple years for new technology to make it into big brand products, because they have loads of inventory to burn through first. This is where the little guys have a massive advantage. For example within 1 week of first auditioning the 1200AS module, I already had 66 amplifiers sold. The 1200AS modules will be going in many big brand commercial amps soon. Expect to see reviews in Stereophile within a year or 2. Only these amps will need to sell for 3-4 times more than the direct sellers can do it for due to inefficiencies in the supply chain. |
- 285 posts total