The biggest secret has been revealed?!

[Hear Here]

We've been working on a class D project for the last 4 years. Not using someone else's modules either- working entirely from scratch. We were awarded a patent back in November 2019. This project has taken a while- there were a lot of hurdles to jump. It was very obvious that if we didn't get this done, class D technology was now developed to the point that if you weren't onboard you were going to be left behind. We've finally had prototypes working for the last several months that are doing what we aimed for. I've taken one home and played it in my own system (with which I am entirely satisfied, although it appears I'll need a new cartridge fairly soon).

Its nice to see that the class D is sounding very much like our regular OTL tube amps. Put another way, since the class D is nearly a perfect voltage source and has distortion over an order of magnitude lower, it should be fairly neutral and its great to hear that even our smallest OTL sounds extremely similar. I expect when the production is up and running I'll snag a pair for my system, not so much because they sound any different (and they don't) but simply because they draw a lot less power and make less heat. I'm not sure and don't care if this means our amps were on the right track all along or if we managed to make a solid state amp that sounds as good as our tube amps.

But there has been a consistent loss of bass at the listening chair although no-where else in the room. To deal with that I talked to Duke at Audiokinesis, since he makes the best-known Distributed Bass Array subwoofer system known as The Swarm. I installed two of his subs (since my main speakers are good to 20Hz no worries) and that solved the bass at the listening chair issue (the standing waves were broken up).

I think its good to be satisfied with what you have. From a viewpoint of life itself its a very healthy place to be!

How refreshing to hear some sensible comments (as opposed to ones based on total ignorance) regarding Class D amplification. Also how refreshing to hear from a long established manufacturer of valve amps admit that the future may be with Class D.

I made a conscious decision 3 years ago to move away from valves to solid state but kept an open mind on what SS technology I would go for. It all depended on how well the various alternatives compared sound-wise with my SET experiences - 845 and PX-25, although I did own a 6C33C-based OTL several years ago.

I bought or home tested a dozen amps of various types but ended up with a very satisfying Class D amp. Despite it's relatively over-the-top output (compared with my valve amps), it excels with my Avantgarde horn speakers.

I admire you for "starting from scratch" as Class D must require a huge amount of R&D and also because excellent off-the-shelf amp modules are really pretty cheap now. It must be tempting to find the best existing module and make your own mods (with the maker's approval) to get the sound you are looking for - presumably as near to your OTLs as possible.

 

[atmasphere]

I think back to the Mar/Apr 2009 issue of The Absolute Sound where editior-in-chief Robert Harley said, "I believe something catastrophic occurs at the recording mic's diaphragm such that much of the music never reaches the recording." Paraphrased. He then went on to describe an experiment conducted by Ed Meitner of EMM Labs. Harley didn't say it but I'm guessing he was just parrotting Meitner's conclusion.

Then there's Jonathan Valin also of TAS who in circa 2008 said, "We are lucky if even our very best playback systems are able to capture just 15% of the magic of the live performance." Paraphrased. More than once after sharing this quote with friends their response was even 15% was optimistic.

These are two individuals who probably have had as much and perhaps more access to equipment than you.

Maybe you could reach out to them and share how you're able to achieve a state of sonic nirvana with your acquire and mission accomplished strategy? No doubt they're missing the boat here.

IME the ability of microphones to capture the musical experience is so good they can easily fool the most jaundiced audiophile. I've seen it happen more than once (when said audiophiles were listening to headphones)! But record off of that mic feed and the result is not the same- IME again the limitation is in the media. But the way speakers interact in a room is a big deal too.

@Hear Here

IME if you try to tailor the sound you are probably adding distortion. It seems a better idea to just go for the best performance that you can.