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Class D Amps - will they be the future.

sorry not entirely clear. the belles murders all the class D stuff ever i've had. more musical , more detailed , quicker ,more dynamic, more bass.
 
the last one's were ICE power (B and O) 500w 8ohms mono's a la belcanto, rotel, akustic reality - that were run in , mains treated. Not sure if this answers your question though.
 
yes, there all analogue class D, some with transformers some without but all analogue. i like belles kits, is yours the reference version and what pre-amp, source and speakers are you using?
 
it's the reference one, the pre is a copper music first and the ps is a art audio V1 but that's changing to a belles pre a28 next week. speakers are focal 1027be. the thing about the speakers is that with the class d stuff, especially the b and o pcb's, they were quite bright and my ears would hurt after a few hours. that seems to have changed. the belles is also really good at lowish volume . this is useful as i have two small children asleep upstairs as i type this. source is raven one, 12 inch jelco and zyxR100, cdp is a karik but i have a MF v dac on my desk at work that i'll give a whirl once i've found a cable. I also have a rel sub that since the belles arrived has been switched off!
 
A day or so ago I was browsing the December 1967 Wireless World and found an article going into some detail on Class D power amps. Apparently the term was coined by Peter Baxandall in 1959.

Quite strange there's so much interest in such legacy arrangements...

Paul
 
Class D had been around for a long time. But what’s interesting is how PWM keeps the algorithm digital. With today’s applications it make allot more sense that it did then.
 
shrink said:
well... i have owned bel canto class D amps... and they are very good in many ways.. but not perfect. I dont think class D is all the way there yet. I find the treble a little dry and the bass a tad over dampened. My accuphase E-550 stuffs the 1000w class D monoblocks truly. It wasnt even close.

Class D might mature well, but its a long way off the best traditional solid state and valve solutions yet.
Click to expand...

I found the Bel Canto S500 amplifier UNLISTENABLE
 
I loved the Bel Canto Evo 2002 driving heavilly modified Maggie 1.6 twelve years ago

My new system has W4S ST-500 driving B&W 805 Diamonds. FWIW I find the sound stunning. My son has a Luxman 505u driving Kudos speakers, the sound is very sweet but does not produce the fireworks and goosebumps for me.

I liked the Tripath amps very much, and now love the W4S implementation of the ICE modules. I seem to be clearly in a minority, there must be something different about the way I listen to music

I find digital amps have
Good to excellent dynamics
Excellent resolution
Very low distortion
Very clean bass
Good control of speaker drivers
When well implemented, sound sweet

I am not into warm sound, rich sound, nice harmonics, and when present I find it degrades the fidelity. I understand and respect that a lot if not the majority HiFi enthusiasts like the warm, rich sound with pleasant harmonics which one often gets with tubes
 
I have to agree with you there, clean and exact, without colour, warmth and distortions is much better than the so called musicality of a fuzzy mid range. Transparent is how it should be. I value hearing everything first, then deciding if the artist is any good, how can you do so otherwise! I don't want everything to sound the same...
 
Well, after much system faffing about over 2 years I've finally settled for a Perreaux 150i with the optional DAC and Phono modules. Been through some very decent kit over the years.

System in detail is:

Olive 4HD, digital out into; Perreaux Eloquence 150i amp and DAC. Speakers are ATC SCM20SL'S.
Digital cable is Belden 1694A and speaker cables are Sommer Cable Eclipse spq 240.

Music is very eclectic and varied :)
 
In response to the OP question, I think Class D could be the future. I'm running a Bel Canto REF150s on the end of a BAT 3iX valve pre-amp using balanced interconnects. Class D power with Valve pre seems to be a good combination. Better to my ears in every respect than my previous experience with Naim/Avondale pre/power combos (e.g. Hicap72/821A/NAP200) with vinyl (LP12) source. Steve
 
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