Thread: Class-D is here!

Posts: 127
Page: prev 1 ... 8 9 10 11 12 13 next

Post by stvnharr December 5, 2014 (111 of 127)
Disbeliever said:

DIY project would be virtually unsaleable.

Yes, of course that is true. But you completely miss the point of DIY. DIY is all about the "Doing", and nothing much else.
If one is only looking for end product performance, as it is for most, DIY is not about that for obvious reasons.
However, the nCore modules were designed and made for simple DIY and kind of bridge the vast in-between.

Post by grsimmon December 5, 2014 (112 of 127)
Disbeliever said:

Are there any well known brands using Ncore & Hypex ? IMO Class AB mos-fet amp still sounds closest to the original sound

Three I'm aware of are NAD, Rogue Audio, and Channel Islands.

Post by grsimmon December 5, 2014 (113 of 127)
And an interesting article here which includes this 'new fangled' amplification.....

http://www.ultraaudio.com/index.php/features-menu/opinion-menu/533-the-state-of-high-end-2014


I have faith that superior engineering will continue to win, and snake oil will lose.....

Post by Disbeliever December 5, 2014 (114 of 127)
grsimmon said:

Three I'm aware of are NAD, Rogue Audio, and Channel Islands.

NAD I have found to be badly made mechanically unreliable, is their small Class D amp. Hypexed, or N cored . Rogue Audio I know for antique tubes, only Channel Islands I know of are Jersey & Guernsey. If Hypex & Ncore Class D modules are better than Class AB, why are no mainstream manufacturers using them.

Post by Fitzcaraldo215 December 6, 2014 (115 of 127)
I notice that there is a Bel Canto Black series, with a completely separate site from their normal stuff. The NCore 1200 based Monoblocks are $15k apiece, although they offer analog input plus a number of other unusual input options, including fiber optic from their Asynchronous Stream Controller. NCore 1200 is not available to consumers for DIY. It is OEM only. NCore 400 is for DIY and dirt cheap, by comparison. Somewhere I saw that NCore 1200 was intended for amps in the $10-$15k range.

Bel Canto still has a number of older ICE-based amps in their non-Black lineup. They were among the Class D amps I did not prefer in favor of my current Spectron.

The odd thing is, these Black series amps were announced over a year ago and they have not garnered much press or many reviews since. And, there are only 4 US dealers. There were a number of other NCore amps announced back then from Theta Digital, Merrill, Mola Mola and others but, again, not much coverage.

Post by Fitzcaraldo215 December 6, 2014 (116 of 127)
Disbeliever said:
... If Hypex & Ncore Class D modules are better than Class AB, why are no mainstream manufacturers using them.

The simple reason for that is if they base an amp on NCore, there is little meaningful the manufacturer can do to differentiate his product from all the others except price. And, that is contrary to all the high end stands for, for better or for worse. High end manufactures will slit their wrists before becoming commoditized.

Either that, or your Class D allergy, has spread like contagion.

Post by Disbeliever December 6, 2014 (117 of 127)
Bel Canto I forget model no. was one of the Class D Amps that I found totally unlistenable. Spectron is not a known brand over here.Primare A60 Class D has received rave reviews in Hi-Fi News but I still would not touch one at £6.5K shares many important features with single-ended Hypex UcD units. SQ rating 88% which is below the rating given to Devialet another brand of no interest to me having heard a Home Demo of the Premier -D . Now I see that Steve Huff is raving over the newer Devialets which he says are much better than the earlier one.

Post by Fitzcaraldo215 December 6, 2014 (118 of 127)
Disbeliever said:

Bel Canto I forget model no. was one of the Class D Amps that I found totally unlistenable.

I found Bel Canto 500m Monoblocks listenable, good actually, and better than a number of AB's, including a Krell. However, I preferred my Spectron by a decent margin, also relative to my then Krell Class A's. So, again, it is impossible if one listens honestly and objectively to simply judge by amplifier class alone. Also, I think the ICE module, upon which those Bel Cantos were based, is aging in a fast moving technological field. It is far from the last word on Class D amplification.

Post by Disbeliever December 6, 2014 (119 of 127)
I quite like the new Arcam Class G A49 (Made in the US) £3.6K but no one has reported on same as far as I can discover and no reviews, sounds excellent with Sonus Faber Guanari Evolution speakers.

Post by stvnharr December 6, 2014 (120 of 127)
Disbeliever said:

Rogue Audio I know for antique tubes, only Channel Islands I know of are Jersey & Guernsey.

Most of the smaller amplifier companies are US based and not sold thru the old distributor/retail supply chains of long ago, or thru importers in other countries. While the internet is everywhere, the products are not.
Google is your friend for broadening your horizons on the Channel Islands.

Page: prev 1 ... 8 9 10 11 12 13 next

Closed