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Posted on amp/preamp something similar. Jeff Day has just written about a fairly new company from Japan - Spec Audio. The designer is said to be a veteran 300B DHT lover and designer who has come up with a class D amp that uses a class D module designed by another Japanese EE reportedly different than existing models. the amp is then 'voiced' using a vintage highly tweeked 300b amp and vintage oil filled caps, etc. Reportedly Tone Imports is going to be distributing the Spec product in the States through their Shindo/Leben dealers. Jeff Day gives it a rave and says it's beeter than "99%" of all tube amps he's ever heard...
Any thoughts
Follow Ups:
The problem with class D amplifiers is not that you can't overlay a harmonic distortion profile similar to what a 300B would produce, but rather that you can't undo the issues inherent in class D amps that a good SET amp would avoid all together.
Firstly, I take Jeff Day's comments lightly - he raves about a lot of gear and may lack the ability to positively discriminate. As an example, I present his review of the Sophia "91" SET amp... That said, I liked his concept for the music-lover series of articles.As for the voicing, it is pretty simple to voice any topology to have a particular sound... at a gross level. The old school 300B sound should be easy to replicate, again, at a gross level. Many SET lovers have moved on from that. No big deal.
If Jeff thinks it is better than 99% of tube amps he has heard, I'd be want some understanding of the contexts and assumptions. Compared to what amps, in what way and in what systems?.. but then you still have to understand it is just his opinion, which...
As for Tone supporting it, I am guessing the amp has their general "house sound" and is a relatively inexpensive and efficient entry point.
As ever, this is just my opinion. I've not looked into it and don't intend to. Maybe the amp is wonderful.
Cheers.
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few." Shunryo Suzuki
Edits: 05/21/15
The review reads like a Dickens novel - a tiring, winding road.
Observe, before you think. Think before you open your yap. Act on the basis of experience.
It certain was... with a fair amount of weirdness along the way.
Cheers.
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few." Shunryo Suzuki
The article is very long, detailed, you might want to check it out. The amp is not inexpensive at $9500.00.
In the past I might have taken the time to read it, but I don't have any inclination at present...That said, my previous post did not add to the discussion - it would have been better not to post.
Edit: I started to scan the review before work, but ran out of time working through the lead-in advertorial content. Some interesting aspects, but again, I am not really into that type of product.
Edit 2: I have scanned the "review" part of the, er, review and can only say "typical Jeff Day". Did I miss the part where comparatively listened to both the Spec Audio amp and a quality SET amp before writing his comparison of the two? Or did he just listen comparatively to IDH pentode amps? He certainly makes some bold claims for the Spec Audio amp vis-a-vis DHT amps, but seems to avoid specifics... Bold claims based of vague generalities. Then there are the curious assumptions regarding SET amps and subsequent reasoning, perhaps based on the types of SET amps he has been exposed to? As an ex-researcher, putting on my peer-reviewer hat, it would seem to be a desired outcome in search of justification... or bias... whether he realises it or not. Nuff said.
Cheers.
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few." Shunryo Suzuki
Edits: 05/21/15 05/23/15 05/25/15
No problem. I understand. Just interested in what folks think.
Regards
No problem here either. I'd be curious to hear the amp some day, but that is unlikely.
Cheers.
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few." Shunryo Suzuki
I remember Bob Carver supposedly designing a solid-state amp voiced with "tube" sound..... I remember it stirring up lively debate in the audio community.
Marantz 18 reciever (solid state) get voiced as tbes wehere the majority of Hi FI back in the early 1960's? Its just PR/marketing, $9500 for a class D amp? I could buy a lot of great tube amps for less, WHy would I pick that over sday a set of Fi 300B monos? or a Komuro 845? or an audio note 300B w/C cores, or an Art Audio PX25? Seriously....
I remember that too and have read that 'story'. I don't think you can really replicate a tube with SS, though it may be a musical amp...
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