Need a little education in Class D? What's the latest (and greatest) ?

joeinid

joeinid

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A friend sent me a link to Cherry Amps aka Digital Amp Co. They look very interesting and have a great following.

I keep seeing the new Purifi module from Nord and NAD. Is that the top of the line now or is the Ncore 1200 still the king?

What have you heard and what can you recommend?

 
Bruno would say now that the Purifi modules from his new venture are the best. Tommy's DAC amps are a proprietary circuit just like the one from Nuprime. It would cost a bit more to sample Tommy's amps than it would one of Colin's Purifi models. If you watch AC you may pick up a DAC amp used. Darren Myers has now mated a tube input stage to the newest IcePower 1200AS modules and Walter at Underwood has a GAN based amp coming soon too that is now past due.
 
I have both the Purify and Ncore based amps from Nord. Purify is a bit better. Changing the op-amps in both makes actually a bigger difference (I prefer the Sparkos-Labs).

My Graaf 20OTL amp wipes the floor with both, lol.
 
Cherry amps have a big following on the AC forum. I have also been curious about them. He has a 30 day trial if I am not mistaken. After hearing how well the PS Audio S700 mono's sounded, I am tempted to give a Cherry amp a try in the future.

Joe, why don't you give one a spin and report back:)
 
Larry

Mike Lundy over at AC had the M700's and is one of the Beta testers for the new M1200. All indications are that he is trading his M700's back in against the 1200's.
 
Mechnutt said:
Cherry amps have a big following on the AC forum. I have also been curious about them. He has a 30 day trial if I am not mistaken. After hearing how well the PS Audio S700 mono's sounded, I am tempted to give a Cherry amp a try in the future.

Joe, why don't you give one a spin and report back:)
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The Benchmark went back today, I prefer the Valvet E2se on my Avantgarde Duo.
 
Jack said:
Larry

Mike Lundy over at AC had the M700's and is one of the Beta testers for the new M1200. All indications are that he is trading his M700's back in against the 1200's.
Click to expand...

If i'm not mistaken, the PS audio amps have a tube input for a hybrid design.
 
That's correct for the M1200's. I think I personally would try Colin's Purifi amp before the 700's but that's me as I have a 1200AS based amp with the standard buffer. Either option though is a play all day with no heat or stress.
 
Thank you Jack. It's great to see all the advancements coming. I was looking at Colin's site last night. I am happy to see how he's grown.
 
Certainly not the "little guy" we all supported years ago but I think he's earned his success. His little inexpensive streamers are supposed to be quite good for the money too as well as the integrated using the preamp using the TVC based preamp.
 
Jack, my son bought the m700's and loved them but he had all sorts of ground loops and it did not like dac's without galvanic isolation. There was a lot of noise. It is an issue with the M700's as PS Audio has a page or 2 dedicated to ground loops in its manual. I did a web search and a few people had the same issues. I hope that they have ironed it out. A borrowed Intona galvanic isolation device fixed the DAC issue but that adds another $375. My son had to send his back for a refund. PSA was a pleasure to deal with.
 
The Cherry Maraschino caught my interest a while back and was surprised to find the company is in Allentown PA, where I used to live. The proprietary class D, the small form, and... I like the looks too... yes I'm a slave to aesthetics. Pic is from the company site.

mara.jpg


The Nord TVC pre was unknown to me; haven't checked their site for a while. I have been interested lately and reading about the Townshend Allegri Reference transformer based pre, which is fairly new but getting high praise. Will look into the Nord some more.
 
Ha!

I love seeing all the new advancements in the technology. The Cherry amp gear looks great. The new Nord amps should be awesome, as well as the new preamp.

I never gave NAD any attention and not sure why. But but now seeing the gear (and seeing Peter with the Avantgarde speakers using the M32) and now an upcoming M33, I’m definitely curious.

I don’t know if there’s one perfect system and I don’t think I could be loyal to one set of speakers/amps/preamp, etc. Variety is the spice of life so I’m excited to try some of my new discoveries.
 
Class D listenable through an honest speaker like AG would be a find indeed.

Tommy O'Brien is a fairly common name but I'm pretty sure he is the guy on one of the Facebook forums I belong to. I was shocked or taken back by some of his comments.
 
I think the amp I would most like to hear is the AGD Audion / Vivace. Proprietary Class D using gallium-nitride.
 
joeinid said:
The Benchmark went back today, I prefer the Valvet E2se on my Avantgarde Duo.
Click to expand...

I would think the E2 is plenty of power on the Duos. I have an E2 here I use off and on with the Klipsch and its 12 WPC will blow you out of my listening room. What were you hoping to get from Class D on the Duos?
 
The Valvet has what feels like a ton of power on my Avantgarde. The non se version was a tiny bit sweeter or more reserved on top, but both versions of the E2 are awesome.

The Benchmark is not class D it’s some sort of AB and H mix, I forget.

As for true Class D, they tend to be smooth and rounded on top - almost rolled off but not totally. I’m a little sensitive to hot treble and don’t like it in my face.

I’ve been experimenting a little lately. The Benchmark was quite eye and ear opening - never fatiguing or aggressive, very smooth and natural but a little bit thin overall. Actually I really liked it and feel it’s awesome on my other speakers as well. I just want to see what other options are out there for me. The Benchmark also ran barely warm, a trait I like about Class D.




puroagave said:
I would think the E2 is plenty of power on the Duos. I have an E2 here I use off and on with the Klipsch and its 12 WPC will blow you out of my listening room. What were you hoping to get from Class D on the Duos?
Click to expand...
 
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If you want 'dark' or rolled off Class D the early Rowland fits the bill. He was using ICE modules with 501 monos and Rowland Concerto int. I had them on Joseph Audio Pulsars and it seems like the treble was missing, like no air or sparkle. I later read the TAS review which corroborated everything I heard. Jeff now uses Pascal modules which supposedly are more extended in the top octaves..
 
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