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In Reply to: RE: Most speakers posted by Jon L on October 15, 2014 at 14:47:13
My experience with class d amps ( tripath, ice, Pascal), is that they are all VERY sensitive to power cords, conditioning and vibration control. If you don't address these, you won't hear it at its best.
Jack
Follow Ups:
I agree 100% with you on the importance of setting up class D amps for best sound. I bought a pair of D-Sonic m2-600 mono-blocks about a year and a half ago to replace a pair of tube amps that were in my system for 20 years and could not be repaired for less than double the price of the new amps and found that they were tantalizingly close in sound, but seriously flawed in several areas. I almost returned them during their 30 day grace period, but made a major effort to fit them into my system and it paid off. In fact, I spent nearly 6 months on integrating them and applied much of what I learned to setting up all my other components. I can make the following observations about this experience:
1. They are very susceptible to EMI/RF - giving and getting - from elsewhere in their environment. Physical placement in 3-dimensional space in relation to other components, cables, and power supplies. They can't be within 3 feet of my SDS unit or the separate power supply feeding a Thor phono preamp in any direction. Failure to follow this rule (in my system) can result in oscillating whistles, steady hum or buzzing, muddy high frequency play and possibly a White Sox game during baseball season.
2. Isolation platforms under these amps reward one with a more noticeable improvement in clean sound than when used under any other component save my turntable. The success I had when experimenting with some leftover brass cones, isoblocks, and a pair of oak shelves borrowed from my bedside tables was so stunning that I went on to treat every component and power supply with its own maple block platform. The amps are currently on Triceratops brass footers set on 2" X 17" round platforms placed on isoblocks on spiked stands behind the speakers. They seem to sound a bit nicer with a couple of ponds of brass discs on top.
3. They really have a long, long break-in period. I stopped clocking improvements at the 1200 hour mark with mine.
4. My amps are very revealing of other problems in the system, and can easily be blamed for those issues. Dissatisfaction with their low bass and upper midrange during complex passages was blamed on the amps for months until I performed a major cleaning and retuning of of my TT. It turns out that these amps were only revealing to me - for the first time in my audiophile life - that VTA and VTF adjustments are indeed critical and variable from record to record. I had to throw out everything I thought I knew about cartridge setup after realizing that the amps are capable of shining a spotlight on the VTA sweet spot when adjusting it on-the fly.
5. Class D amps really like clean power, but not all power cords are created equal. Mine sound best with an old pair of Top Gun HCFI monsters plugged directly into the wall sockets (Maestro duplex with matching covers) and bypassing the PPP power regenerator.
My whole system really came into its own after I stopped blaming the amps for everything I thought was wrong.
Everything is going to the dogs
FWIW, I'm currently using the D-sonic M3-1500 monoblocks in my main system. They are sitting on a symposium platform that is sitting on a signalguard platform (has visco-elastic fluid). A *wonderful* combination. They also have Herbie's Supersonic Stabilizers on top, which made a huge difference. Mine are plugged into my PPP via Audio Art cables.
This set up has also worked well for other class D amps.
Jack
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