Class D

[Diapason]

Gotta tell you, I've been having some pretty good success with Class D recently. A good while ago I borrowed the Kharma pre and monoblocks and I really liked them. Still, given that they were driving Kharma speakers you'd be hoping for some synergy, and I didn't really think much further about it. Recently I've been listening to the Primare I32 which, to my surprise, is a Class D design. Simply put, I love it. REALLY open, without being forced, solid bass that stops and starts in an instant, and while it perhaps doesn't have the midrange vocal magic that the best valves offer, it sounds really unforced and natural to my ears. All told, its strengths are similar to the strengths of the Kharma monos, and I'm starting to wonder if it's just the topology that I like.

Reviews online of this particular amp are mixed (well, most seem positive, but What Hifi bleated on about a variety of perceived misgivings, and left me wondering whether they'd even bothered to take it out of the box). There certainly seems to be a certain view about how Class D sounds, but I'm not experienced enough to be able to comment sensibly. Even the positive reviews point towards a "coolness" (and reading between the lines, edginess or brightness) that I'm just not hearing

Anyone else enamoured with Class D?

[Fran]

From what I've read, the earlier designs sounded like that - very clean and open but a little err, edgy or bright. I think that a lot of work has been done since to overcome that, and most likely the newest crop are much better in that regard. As I understand it, there is a very different power requirement with them, different in some respects to other amps. I think they need to be capable of sudden high current delivery.... but maybe that's just technobabble BS! I've long had a hankering to put one together, but haven't done it yet. If Iw as to go do one, I think my first port of call would be the kit from audiosector.

Si - you should try my F5 with those Kharmas. I suspect it would be a match made in heaven, and indeed I would be interested in hearing it. It went very well with Brian's Marten speakers - also ceramic drivers.

Are the kharma amps reasonable or crazy?

Fran

[Gerry D]

That's very interesting.
I must have a listen to one. I believe there's an inbuilt DAC ? And remote control.

May solve some issues for me.

Anyone else got feedback on class D ?

[Diapason]

They're not crazy crazy, but my experience has been that they need more watts than is often advertised. I've tried a few 25W valve amps, and to my ears they don't work at all, 40W is borderline. I know others listen with a lot less than that, but there it is. I've only ever heard them sounds REALLY good with higher-powered valve designs.

Of course, that's not to say that I won't give the F5 a go!

Gerry D, my understanding is that the inbuilt DAC has yet to to installed. There certainly isn't a DAC on the one I listened to.

[Fran]

Are the speakers bi-wireable?

[Diapason]

Nope, single-wire only.

[Diapason]

Fran, why did I have it in my head that you'd already experimented with a build? Was somebody else here talking about one?

[Fran]

Claus....

[Diapason]

So it was.

Come out come out wherever you are, Claus.

[jkeny]

I've been on/off interested in Class D amps for some time - have tried the Tripath T-Amp year sago & it was great value for money. I've also used a Panasonic XR70 digital receiver. I found them very clear & detailed with a bit of magic at times but sensitive to power supply & speaker load.

I'm interested in one of these now - Hifimediy T4 board based on another Tripath chip but capable of 180W into 8ohm speakers. http://hifimediy.com/?page_id=18&catego ... duct_id=23 I've heard reports that this amp sounds very good when powered by batteries. It even takes PWM input directly, I believe, which opens up the way for using a Hiface front-end integrated into the amp i.e a one box amplifier direct from a PC or netbook