Need a little education in Class D? What's the latest (and greatest) ?

Interesting. I’d love to hear Rowland’s AB gear like the 625 S2 or new 735.

What started me thinking about class D again was a friend asking about the Cherry amps and all the great reviews from customers. Then I start looking around again, like a dog chasing a squirrel. :)

Sometimes it’s just fun shopping around and looking at what’s out there. A lot of companies have come a long way, it’s great to see.


puroagave said:
If you want 'dark' or rolled off Class D the early Rowland fits the bill. He was using ICE modules with 501 monos and Rowland Concerto int. I had them on Joseph Audio Pulsars and it seems like the treble was missing, like no air or sparkle. I later read the TAS review which corroborated everything I heard. Jeff now uses Pascal modules which supposedly are more extended in the top octaves..
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I've never heard a Class D sound rolled off, typically it's the highs or edginess that turns me off.

I did like the sound of Audio Alchemy with a good set of speakers. The second time I heard the set up with other speakers I wasn't as impressed.

I think the possible benchmark for Class D now may be the Merrill Audio Element amplifiers. Although I have yet to hear them. They are certainly out of my budget.

Class G like the Devialet uses is what seems to be catching on fast, Krell, Arcam, so therefore Lexicon. I'm sure others. I actually really like Devialet.
 
joeinid said:
Interesting. I’d love to hear Rowland’s AB gear like the 625 S2 or new 735.

What started me thinking about class D again was a friend asking about the Cherry amps and all the great reviews from customers. Then I start looking around again, like a dog chasing a squirrel. :)

Sometimes it’s just fun shopping around and looking at what’s out there. A lot of companies have come a long way, it’s great to see.
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Hello Joe,
I own a pair of JRDG 725S2s; would you please divulge what we can look forward to in the “new” JRDG 735s?
 
joeinid said:
A friend sent me a link to Cherry Amps aka Digital Amp Co. They look very interesting and have a great following.

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Found a used pair of the 48v Maraschinos; received them on Friday. Using them, the TDAI-3400 integrated is now employed as pre / room correction only. This is the first pair of monos for me.

Initial impressions are good. Bass is quite a bit stronger, hearing good detail and seems a bit more three dimensional. Also, they are quiet, and get barely warm.

And this is with using the stock power cords and Mogami Gold XLRs, which are the only spare balanced cables I have on hand at the moment.

cherry.jpg
 
Thought this SoundStage review of the new Purifi amplification might be of interest, with an excerpt below for reference:

I began evaluating the Eigentakt when I used it in May to review the Magico A1 minimonitors ($7400/pair). Before hooking up the Eigentakt, I’d been using a pair of Constellation Audio Revelation Taurus monoblocks -- massive amps that cost $40,000/pair, are specified to each output up to 500W into 8 ohms or 1000W into 4 ohms, and sound outstanding. The Eigentakt clearly wouldn’t be able to match that kind of power, but the Magico A1s don’t need it -- and don’t want it, unless you want to blow them up... Feeding the Eigentakt were an EMM Labs DA2 Reference DAC and Pre preamplifier, both via Crystal Cable Standard Diamond Balanced interconnects. My music server was an Asus ZenBook UX303U laptop computer, connected to the DAC with an AmazonBasics USB link.

I found that the Eigentakt was not only powerful enough to drive the A1s -- it sounded as good as the Constellations. As I wrote in my review, “almost nothing about the A1s’ sound had changed -- the tonal balance was the same, the highs were just as extended and the midrange just as pure, voices were equally robust, bass just as extended, and the soundstaging and imaging were exactly as before.” What’s more, I also thought that if there were any differences in the sounds, they “were at best slight and, surprisingly, favored the Purifi. I played “Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have -- But I Have It,” from Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! (16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC, Interscope). As I also said in the review, “the subtle sounds of her lips moving as she sings softly into the microphone were more apparent through the Purifi.” Ever since the arrival of the Revelation Taurus monos, I’ve loved their combination of smoothness, detail, and effortlessness -- for the Eigentakt to turn in the same performance, at a fraction of the price, was incredible. I was impressed.
 
Pretty awesome review. Thank you for posting. Looks like the new Purifi equipped amps are pretty great.
 
When you listened did it sound noticeably better than the Reference Bel Canto?

When at Axpona the Bel Canto room with the Black was full but from the doorway it just sounded like Bel Canto which left me scratching my head at $50k. However, I will reserve judgement until a proper audition.

That might seem like a ridiculous statement, however, I have had systems that actually drew my attention from what I heard from the hall, not even the doorway.

We do have a dealer who carries the Ref gear, I need to get back over to hear the most current monoblocks. He don't carry any of the Black though.
Swisstrips said:
Surprised no mention of the Bel Canto black. No experience other than some brief listens at the local audio shop. Not cheap, but has some interesting tech and seems to get a lot of praise.

The System - Bel Canto Design
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Bel Canto black looks awesome but they have eye watering price points. I’d love to hear them and certainly hope they are worth it.



Swisstrips said:
Surprised no mention of the Bel Canto black. No experience other than some brief listens at the local audio shop. Not cheap, but has some interesting tech and seems to get a lot of praise.

The System - Bel Canto Design
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Mr Peabody said:
When you listened did it sound noticeably better than the Reference Bel Canto?

When at Axpona the Bel Canto room with the Black was full but from the doorway it just sounded like Bel Canto which left me scratching my head at $50k. However, I will reserve judgement until a proper audition.

That might seem like a ridiculous statement, however, I have had systems that actually drew my attention from what I heard from the hall, not even the doorway.

We do have a dealer who carries the Ref gear, I need to get back over to hear the most current monoblocks. He don't carry any of the Black though.
Click to expand...

I was more less mentioning it as it seems applicable here. They only had the full black system setup and sounded great (I think with Alexia II), but no other bel canto to compare.

The fiber interconnect system and output stage looks interesting.
 
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