Switched to Class D or get left behind?

[Randy Myers]

I have tried a variety of Class D amps. Wyred 4 Sound, Bel Cantos, NAD, PS Audio, etc. From Ice to Purifi. While good, none seemed to have that special something. They all left me feeling dry or lacking. No warm and cuddly feeling that some amps have given me. First Watt, ARC, McIntosh, Audio Mirror, MBL, JOB, etc.

When I purchased my new McIntosh, I spoke directly with a gentleman at McIntosh tech support. Come to find out he was a nephew of a good friend from high school. We talked for a very long time, and he could not believe that I knew his uncle back in high school.

Anyway, they do offer a line of Class D amps that I believe use the Purifi amp technology. He highly suggested that I stick with their standard amps for a music first system. He said the class D are very good for a surround sound entertainment system, but their standard amps are better for my needs.

I had also decided to stay away from tubes at this point. Every tube amplifier I have owned have always been quite finicky. Preamps are a different story. I jumped back in on a headphone amp. Woo is incredibly stable with tubes and show some real improvements with better tubes. I got a set of 5691 driver tubes that arrived yesterday. Wow, I have never seen a pair of upgraded tubes make that much of a difference!

 

[roncagg]

As a class A fan (FirstWatt, Pass, Sugden, Almarro tube amp) I was very pleasantly surprised by the sound of the wyred 4 sound mINT I just bought for a 2nd (Roon streaming only) system. Using the Zen Stream as Roon endpoint, the internal DAC of the mINT, and feeding Harbeth P3esr standmounts results in a compact system that sounds great. The ICE modules used in the amp give the P3esr the juice they like, and I prefer this pairing to the A21se sig in my main system on these speakers. FWIW!