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In Reply to: Power for Pennies.... except when its not posted by AbeCollins on April 11, 2022 at 09:55:07:
> While that is generally true along with fantastic bang for the buck and excellent sound, it doesn't explain the mega-buck audiophile Class D amp.
In my opinion, there's little justification for mega-buck anything in audio except for the fact that some people are willing to pay these ridiculously high prices.
I've spent my whole life searching for, and often finding, reasonably priced high-end components. I need fairly hefty power amplifiers for my Thiel speakers, but I can no longer afford appropriate class-A/B amplifiers. Fortunately, I discovered that PS Audio produced some outstanding sounding class-D amplifiers and I bought a pair. Still, they weren't exactly cheap at $6,598 a pair. However, like Abe, I was able to negotiate a discount and I paid only $4500, but the ones I really wanted were the Parasound class-A/B monoblocks at $17,998 a pair. Even PS Audio makes a pair of class-A/B monoblocks for $16,498. These monoblocks are only half the power of my class-D M1200 monoblocks, yet they're more than twice the price.
Fortunately, I'm overjoyed with the sound of the PS Audio M1200 class-D monoblocks. These things really sound spectacular.
I'd been using a Parasound Halo A21, which is no slouch. It's rated at 450-wpc into 4-ohms but it appeared to produce about 750-wpc on 1000-Hz tone-bursts into my Thiel CS3.7 speakers. The Parasound Halo A21 was just beginning to clip at 50-volts RMS at 1000-Hz. The impedance of the Thiel's at 1000-Hz is about 3.3-ohms. Nevertheless, the improvement in sound quality with the PS Audio 1200-watt class-D monoblocks was absolutely stunning. I'd never heard such dynamic contrast. In fact, I even wrote to PS Audio asking them if the M1200's contained dynamic range expanders. Of course, they didn't, but they sounded so much more dynamic than my Parasound Halo A21 that I was flabbergast. The M1200's also sound smooth and pleasing in the highs with a very natural and transparent midrange. They didn't sound anything like my old Crown XLS-1500 class-D amplifier. Then again, they weren't that cheap, either!
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1000-Hz tone-bursts from my Parasound amplifier into my Thiel CS3.7 speakers
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Follow Ups
- RE: Power for Pennies.... except when its not - John Elison 15:39:03 04/12/22 (1)
- High end audio isn't driven by price, its driven by intention. - Ralph 12:16:06 04/13/22 (0)
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