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In Reply to: Just so we are clear- class A is the lowest distortion class of operation posted by Ralph on June 28, 2016 at 09:23:45:
My opinion on this issue continues to evolve, as time goes forward and becoming more exposed to newer gear available.My current speakers are ATC-SCM19's (with outboard crossovers), along with sub-woofers. I've tried them with many different amp setups, from class A SS mono-blocks, to various class AB SS pre-amps and power amp combos, and high powered tube setups. Each setup has it's own strengths and shortfalls. Based on the aforementioned gear, the tube amps provided the most enjoyment overall with these speakers. The tube gear with the ATC's really brings out many of the best traits of the speaker playback.
About six months ago, auditioned a pair of Class D mono-blocks and the matching pre-amp (Primare A32 preamp and A34.2 power amps). At the same time, picked up a Benchmark DAC-2. I had never been enamored with class D amps overall, but I have to admit, this combination with the ATC/Sub combo is outstanding. Totally changed my previous outlook on class D amps. The difference was VERY noticeable with all types of music, but especially noticeable with complex symphonic music. Dynamic contrasts, ability to hear low level detail cleanly is remarkable. Easily the closest I've been able to come to replicate a live performance. This is extremely difficult to achieve with classical symphonic music, but this setup at least comes somewhat close.
There are a couple of items at work here. One of them is the fact that the ATC speakers need lots of power to sound there best. At 550 watts, clipping is not an issue. I have become a big believer in having lots of power on hand to avoid distortion/clipping. There was article posted some years ago that Bob Carver measured how much power it took to reproduce the sound of scissors, and it took some astronomical amount of power to play it back cleanly.
Another item is the fact that this version of class D (UFPD) sounds very good overall, and gets out of the way to allow the system to reproduce the music. If one just listened to the playback without knowing what the gear was, one would not pick up on the fact that the power amps are class D.
Lastly, there is a synergy with this combo that the sum sounds even better than the parts. The Benchmark DAC-2 is easily one of the best DAC's I've ever heard, and makes the playback sound that much better.
In summary, I think the amp needs to have good synergy with the speakers, regardless of design class.
" Don't look back. Something may be gaining on you"
Satchel Paige
Edits: 06/28/16
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Follow Ups
- RE: Just so we are clear- class A is the lowest distortion class of operation - Freo-1 16:21:39 06/28/16 (3)
- Your closing comment is spot on. - Ralph 07:49:19 06/29/16 (2)
- RE: Your closing comment is spot on. - Inmate51 08:08:30 06/29/16 (1)
- One of my ex-employees is an engineer there - Ralph 08:10:19 06/29/16 (0)
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