Class D or FirsWatt/Aleph

Jump to Latest
sparkle

sparkle

Member
Joined 2003
tnd-pipes.com/
Paid Member
#1
Ladies and gents,
i am a little bit in trouble.... 🙂 🙂
After 10+ years i am back in audio ... Many things changed and i feel kind of lost.
...
Before, it was kind of easier - class A, Class AB, tubes.... done more or less....
.
Now, we have class D that looks kind of promissing....
But, i have doubts related "lifeless sound", to much power i really don't need, reliability question in function of time,...
I mean - tube amp will work probably for decades and i am not sure i can say that for class D from my standpoint.
.
To cut the story short.
I am having speakers that are 90+ db on 4 ohms....
Listening to electronic music mostly (ambient and such).
can do tubes for peamp section
BUT
can anyone tell me if i should consider class D or maybe better go for F5 for example..... or maybe Aleph 3....
i kind of like classic circuits - makes me feel more comfortable... but still like to get the most for the money invested.....
...
i know it is one of "those" threads... but stil, when you feel "crazy" from so many things around you, a brother with a little bit wider perspective would be nice to hear....
Thank you all for your time and advices.....
cheers
 
#2
Even with all the success in latest class D technologies I still prefer good old class a for music and Papa’s are the best. As for what FW to choose read manuals. We all have our favorites here. Btw if your are in US you can check Swap Meet section I have one for sale there if you want to skip building part 🙂.
 
#6
Most the enjoyment in sound I feel is the speakers.
and tend to put more emphasis on that.

Having been around tube amps and high powered PA amplifiers all my life.
I truly do not care to much for high distortion amplifiers to add " warmth"
For music playback. But find the topology and harmonic profile interesting.
So I find Class A and the poor efficiency and high cost not so great
I understand the romance and Aw with such amplifiers.
Similar to tube amps.

Then again I find more romance in a nice speaker system. And something exotic like a Horn system
or extremely large reflex cabinets, more exciting than putting heat into aluminum.

Designing amplifiers rather A or A/B is likely the most fascinating and truly intellectual and intelligent
thing a person can do. Likewise the whole art form of building a case or chassis and heatsink is art within itself.

far as class d, it hurts my head and nothing fun about it.
 
#10
Class D will have a long long life. No doubt about that because it as so many advantages for the market (best efficiency, low cost, low consumption, ...). The main drawback is it's a "digital" signal path because the signal is managed like on a DAC (this is the reason why the efficiency is so high, the transistors work only in ON or OFF mode, not linear mode, it's the same diff in power supply between switch mode and linear mode). So as it it a "digital" mode (the sinus waves become square waves then with a low pass filter juste before the speaker become a sinus wave again), I think the sound is not as good as linear classes (A, AB, G ....). However for most Hi-fi or headphone applications, it's not a problem. For instruments amp (guitar or bass amp), it should be avoid.
 
#12
As of late, I have a harder time saying that my Class A amps are superior sonically than my best Class D amps. Purely from a measurement standpoint, the class D has lower THD at higher power but has low level HF “grass” at the -110dB level on an FFT. Also, don’t look at the signal on an Oscope and you won’t see the 400kHz carrier frequency fuzz. Of course, we can’t hear it but visually it’s there on an Oscope. The noise floor on my Class D is around 4uV rms. Inaudible with ears pressed to speaker cone no music playing. Pair the low noise high DF Class D amp with a tube buffer stage and the sound is the best of both worlds. It’s not clear cut and I would say in most daily use for 24/7 playing, the Class D is hard to beat. For special listening sessions I’ll turn on the hot running Class A amps but for most of the time, my 100w Class D is 99.5% satisfactory. For occasions where I need a lot of power, I’ll turn on the 600wpc Class D with built in Russian NOS 6N1P input buffer. 🙂 However, there is a special place for headphone amps that are pure SE Class A. I think that cannot be beat by Class AB or Class D.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: twocents and pinkfloyd4ever
#13
I wonder the same too. I have a class D amp (TPA 3255 based) and I've heard an hypex ncore 252mp.

To me they both just sound like good amps, there's nothing about them which would say to me this sounds like a class D amp.

I've never heard a class A amp, so I do wonder what the love is all about. I will probably end up building a First Watt amp at some point as I need to know.

I'll be interested to see what you decide to go with
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mikerodrig27
#15
PKI said:
Even with all the success in latest class D technologies I still prefer good old class a for music and Papa’s are the best.
Click to expand...
Same. Nelson’s amps are very good, but in my limited experience there are others that compete i have a diy Class A triode EL84 amp that is competitive with my SIT-3.

But all of Nelson’s amps i have heard are very good. Even the ACA, and ACA mini (mine sitting on the SIT-3 at the moment, it is not a huge hardship and a whle lot smaller.

I haven’t heard any of the “premium” Class D, the ones i have hd thru here do bass really well, but start to lose out as frequency increases.

Of course amlifier should always be considered part of a system which includes the speakers & what is between.

dave
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom