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A solution arrived, however, with full-digital amplifiers. Here, digital signals drive a loudspeaker, directly. This type of product, out since the late 1990s, is finally getting attention - Lyngdorf TDAI, NAD M2, Technics R1 system.

From the Lyngdorg site:

a digital input is processed only once in a pulse width modulator (PWM) based on the patented Equibitâ„¢ technology originally developed for the Millennium amplifier (as opposed to pulse code modulation).

From the Technics site:

This works with a newly-developed and original high-precision PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) conversion circuit,


Both quotes suggest a class D amplifier driven by a digital source. Its a bit misleading to call that a digital amplifier. Class D is not digital, but does lend itself conveniently to direct conversion.

Digital is sweeping the audio world

'Swept' is the better term, but oddly digital failed to stamp out the LP. You need not know anything about either technology to thus know that digital so far has been a failure in terms of state of the art. This is because the LP is still around, driven by market forces. Usually when a succeeding and superior technology supplants the prior art, the prior art is relegated to collectors and museums (the side valve in internal combustion gave way long ago to the overhead valve and there was no looking back).

The period of the least amount of LP reproduction was 1992-1993- IOW, a quarter of a century ago. Its been on the rise ever since.

Late last year the LP outsold digital downloads in the UK.

You are entitled to your opinion of course, but it flies in the face of the market forces which are somehow keeping the LP alive, and FWIW its not audiophiles that are doing that! Its kids- and kids have kept the LP alive for over 25 years now- its not a 'trend'. Its a simple fact that digital failed to do what audiophiles were told it would do- replace the LP.

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