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Anyone still prefer Class A/B amps over Class D?

#341
Pbassmanca said:
Mesa M9 Carbine. 48 lbs of bulls balls. And yes, from my experience so far, I prefer the A/B power to class D. Seems to me to have a thicker, more percussive and immediate bottom end drive to the tone, but to be fair, there's a lot of high end class D I haven't tried. Yet.......
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My sentiments exactly. In my case it's a Crest CA9 and an Aguilar TH500. And I also haven't tried every Class D amplifier out there.
 
#343
I said OT because I wasn't comparing network engineering to MI engineering. But I wouldn't be surprised if Andy hasn't had to predict the future due to maybe a bad product development committee. I've seen it done on not only stable and unchanging designs, but even in repackaging the old product. That was probably a worst case new product process though. The person who insisted on designed and lead the monster was the only one that sidestepped it to get pet projects to market. Andy, does this make you cringe, "Oh, by the way..." ??? :D

JimmyM said:
Network design is a rapidly changing marketplace where technological advances are still happening and the best is yet to come.
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Not in my world. Sure, the marketplace changes, all kinds of neat stuff for home and small biz. Nothing there for me, updated versions of the same thing. I'm dealing with regulatory compliance, extreme military grade security (including malware and intrusion prevention, detection and constant monitoring), ever expanding storage, no downtime (aggregation, redundancy and failover for everything). Nothing new is going to help me. Nothing is plug and pray. The device I'm working on now requires about two man-months of programming to get it to beta status. There are many other parts and systems all requiring programming or a lot of setup. Last network lasted 10 years after it took two years to design and implement, as I told my supervisor when I walked in the door. This will take 5 years, but it's more transitional. It also needs to last 10 years. That gives my replacement(s) a few years to learn the ropes.
 
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#344
BadExample said:
That's a very good point. Should manufacturers ignore the quest for full spectrum their customers desire and seek to make new amps sound like the old? Then the fight would be, so class D sounds the same, why should I replace my a/b?
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In my opinion, if you want to try and capture the "old school sound" that is better done with your cabinet choice and not the amp. Amps in those days were able to recreate the full spectrum of our instruments range just fine. Something like a Bergantino NV610 and a little tweak of the EQ, would give any modern amp a decidedly old school vibe.
 
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#346
R Baer said:
In my opinion, if you want to try and capture the "old school sound" that is better done with your cabinet choice and not the amp. Amps in those days were able to recreate the full spectrum of our instruments range just fine. Something like a Bergantino NV610 and a little tweak of the EQ, would give any modern amp a decidedly old school vibe.
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I don't disagree. Thats more or less what I've done but with a diy 1 x 15 plus class D. Nice tone. Even nicer with a pork loin.
 
#349
Many of the older amps were heavily voiced, that's one part (and an important one) of the old school equation. Just look at some of the Ampeg, Fender, Alembic and even Mesa amps of 30+ years ago as examples. Some voicings were more extreme than others, but hardly flat response. That's the tone profile that many early designers gravitated towards.
 
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#350
agedhorse said:
Many of the older amps were heavily voiced, that's one part (and an important one) of the old school equation. Just look at some of the Ampeg, Fender, Alembic and even Mesa amps of 30+ years ago as examples. Some voicings were more extreme than others, but hardly flat response. That's the tone profile that many early designers gravitated towards.
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+1 on the voicing. Was playing around with my Magellan 800 yesterday and found that I like it better with the contour knob turned all the way.
 
#351
When I look at a 30+ year old amp I don't immediately think vintage. I guess I think in terms of old-school and old old-school.

I often have to be reminded that an amp is vintage, to me it's just what I like and use. Since I perform my own maintenance, my amps are kept up to spec. No need to buy anything new except when afflicted with GAS.
 
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#352
agedhorse said:
Many of the older amps were heavily voiced, that's one part (and an important one) of the old school equation. Just look at some of the Ampeg, Fender, Alembic and even Mesa amps of 30+ years ago as examples. Some voicings were more extreme than others, but hardly flat response. That's the tone profile that many early designers gravitated towards.
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Andy, just a WAG, what would you guess the deviation from flat might be in db?
 
#354
R Baer said:
In my opinion, if you want to try and capture the "old school sound" that is better done with your cabinet choice and not the amp. Amps in those days were able to recreate the full spectrum of our instruments range just fine. Something like a Bergantino NV610 and a little tweak of the EQ, would give any modern amp a decidedly old school vibe.
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does it ever! :thumbsup:
 
#355
I like a detailed sounds that is close to the natural sound of the bass.
Vanderkley and hevos both use modern class D amps, and they are awesome.

I do can understand why people like that harmonicly distrotiong tube sound that add that spark in the highs. Or when the signal is pushing when it created that wooly low-mid bloom. Guess it comes down to context. However i think a tube pre- with and class D amp should be able to create these colouration


 
#356
Hallic said:
I like a detailed sounds that is close to the natural sound of the bass.
Vanderkley and hevos both use modern class D amps, and they are awesome.

I do can understand why people like that harmonicly distrotiong tube sound that add that spark in the highs. Or when the signal is pushing when it created that wooly low-mid bloom. Guess it comes down to context. However i think a tube pre- with and class D amp should be able to create these colouration
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To a certain extent, yes, but it's still not the same.
 
#357
After trying a couple handfuls of NOS tubes and learning a trick to get my amp to grind, I'm pretty happy with the sound, but I think this is an area where we'll probably see quite an improvement in the years to come. Either with a tube preamp or digital emulation. IDK much about the B|amp you have Jimmy, but from what little I know or think I know, I gather this one may be kind of a leader of the pack in on board digital processing. Unless I'm thinking of something else... dain bramage!
 
#358
BadExample said:
After trying a couple handfuls of NOS tubes and learning a trick to get my amp to grind, I'm pretty happy with the sound, but I think this is an area where we'll probably see quite an improvement in the years to come. Either with a tube preamp or digital emulation. IDK much about the B|amp you have Jimmy, but from what little I know or think I know, I gather this one may be kind of a leader of the pack in on board digital processing. Unless I'm thinking of something else... dain bramage!
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You mean me? Nope, I'm strictly Ampeg, bro. Respect for other manufacturers who do a good job, but I've found my voice and I'm sticking with it.
 
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