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Good Class D amps ??


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12 hours ago, barrows said:

Because the idle dissipation is the problem.  Take my former Pass Labs amplifier, it required at least an hour of warm up to reach thermal equilibrium and its best operating condition.  It seemed to sound even better though when left on overnight.  In any case, I could not predict with an hours advance notice when I was going to be listening, so if I wanted the amp to sound its best it had to be left on 24/7.  Although it was not a high power model, it still idled at ~250 watts.  So that is a significant energy waste.

With my class d amplifier, which actually sounds a bit better, I leave it on 24/7 and it idles at ~10 watts.  Big difference.

 

But, I chose the class d amp because it sounds better, and the energy savings is just a bonus.

I had a Passlabs too and I agree with your statement. Also because of the thermal stress their sound deteriorated over time; I guess as mostly the caps aged. Now my main amplifier is a Devialet D250 Pro which is a hybrid classA/D and for my woofers a DIY class D (Anatech). I have Kharma MP150 which are Hypex derived and they are sitting in the garage (beautiful little red things).

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Just now, sandyk said:

 Just remember that many of you would be pitting the very latest technology against a much earlier design  Pass amplifier.

Linear Amplifier design has also further improved in recent years as evidenced by the extremely high S/N of the Benchmark design.

I understand that, and even the newest class D have less good highs than top class A but at least in my case classD is just superior for woofers. I am using for the rest of the frequency spectrum a Devialet D250Pro which is a hybrid design and measures and in my opinion sounds better than any ClassA (orAB). The only linear amp I know of is Benchmark AHB2 amp which has competitive measurements and high efficiency but I never had the chance to listen to them.

Also energy efficiency should as important as sound quality in evaluating amps.

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GUTB opinions are not news. Fake opinions?

I heard an early version of the Kaluga and was quite impressed as I was with some Constellation, CH Precision etc. but I never heard them in the same setup and room. Any statement which is better needs to come from comparisons with only one variable but one can have an opinion if one hears various components in various systems.

I am happy with my hybrid A/D amp!

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So what about LPS. There is a general idea that toroids are the best transformers. They were developed for military reasons for saving space in airplanes and because they were fancy and and expensive (not so much anymore) they were the things to put in better audio equipment. What about R-core transformers, much less primary to secondary capacitance and therefore less high frequency noise leakage.

I like that forum to learn and not to preach!

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28 minutes ago, esldude said:

We just can't do it. 

 

I'm stuck with class D.  I mean bad enough already right?  Mine has toroidal power transformers I think.  Bad, bad bad.  Leaking noise everywhere.  I mean the output noise when idling is literally a couple dozen microvolts.  It sounds quiet to me.  Quieter than any amp I have ever owned.  But I am having trouble sleeping at night.  I wake up with nightmares about what might be going on and still think it sounds okay when it just can't be, right?  It just cannot be. 

I have a class D with toroids (Kharma MP150) and a DIY Anaview with integrated SMPS and I like the later much more (if it has to drive the right  impedance).

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