Class D if so inclined

[atmasphere]

It was surprising how much difference there was in these amps and more so that some amps

IME there are bigger differences in the sound of class D than even in tube amps.

However, because one transistor will be turned off before the other is turned on, there will be a short period of "dead time" when neither is turned on. This is analogous to crossover distortion in a conventional class-B amplifier.

Actually it isn't. Most class D amps are immune to crossover distortion. It occurs though I may have taken you too literally. Dead time does introduce distortion. In our design causes 2nd and 3rd harmonics.

I have to select the buffer and Op amp. I have been reading about which voices how. I have been lead to believe the Buffer has the biggest impact on sound. The Op Amps next.

The power supply seems to have the biggest effect. It gets skimped on a lot since the amp is so efficient, people thought they didn't need the supply to be all that robust. Its just as important as it is in a class A or AB amp.

I think poor power supplies affected a lot of designs in the last 25 years that basically put people off of class D. Put another way I've had people tell me they'll never get one again since their initial experience was so bad.

By contrast modern opamps have little effect on the sound if you don't ask more that about 20dB of gain of them. But I've seen a few input buffers that seem to screw things up so buyer beware seems to be a thing. We built in our buffer to prevent this sort of nonsense.

I'd like to hear a GAN amp.

The advantage I seen in GaNFETs is lower radiated noise (broadcast, in the AC line or audio grounds). Switching noise can really mess with other equipment in the system; I tried a powered sub one time that radiated so much noise it made my FM tuner useless.

GaNFET have no leads on them, just flat pads for soldering. This means you can really control the parasitic inductances that are present on the board. So GaNFETs on that account alone allow the amp to be so quiet that a good number of tube amps radiate more noise.

I would agree anyone with some basic knowledge could build up a Hypex Or Purifi class D amp. I don't know if VTV has their own proprietary power supply. That seems to be a big impact on the sonics. Especially the tube one.

We found that to get the most out of the module, the power supply pretty well had to be custom built for the application. Part of this is so as to not limit current, but also at the same time include current sensing to shut the amp down in the case of a short at the output or the like.

 

[W9TR]

I will be getting either Buckeye or a VTV amps. I looked at building my own but the cost was higher than buying completed units. If find them deficient I’ll build my own linear power supplies for them.

 

[Kingrex]

@atmasphere I would love to have a pair of your amps Ralph. But I would actually need 2 pair. I just don't have that kind of money.

Oddly conversing with gemini today, I was told that getting class D amplifiers to multi amp with my highly resolving tybe amp would probably be a better match than using something like a Anthem 5 channel cinema amp. It said the Anthem while having more authority and control, will be warmer and lusher. Blending with a highly resolving tube amp driving a horn tweeter handling 1600 hertz and up would be better done with Purifi on the woofers.