It's sad that you felt the need to put the disclaimer at the end.
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Class D amps sound inferior?
- Thread starter tb4sbp
- Start date
Maybe I'm not getting the gist of this statement.
Square, sawtooth, sine waves used in sound synthesis all have distinct frequencies. These waves have both a positive and negative amplitude.
That's not the same as a clocked bitstream of data, where it alternates between a single specified voltage level and the lack of voltage.
No, all modems have an analog front end that converts bits to waveform for transmission over a copper pair. That includes DSL modems. The waveforms can be exceedingly complex in order to attain higher bandwidths. What you hear (and there's bunch of stuff happening out of human hearing range) is a representation of the waveforms.
Bass headphones are different. Each speaker is projecting the sound through your head so that your left ear is hearing the output of the right speaker, and vice versa. That's how they accommodate the long wavelengths. It's amazing technology. Plus it massages your brain as you listen.
I have my Tech21 VT500 in service, and I always get compliments at gigs.
I would never tote around a SVT or similar amp, based on weight alone, yet alone tubes.
I know they sound great, but carrying more gear to gigs ain’t happening!
Besides the audience would and can care less.
I prefer under 7lbs.
I would never tote around a SVT or similar amp, based on weight alone, yet alone tubes.
I know they sound great, but carrying more gear to gigs ain’t happening!
Besides the audience would and can care less.
I prefer under 7lbs.
Nkay. And where are these Class A bass amps that this person loves so much. From my understanding, all-tube bass amps are Class A/B. Yes, I'm aware there is probably some ridiculously high end boutique Class A bass amps out there, I'm just saying.
My last two amps were a Genz Benz GBE 750 and a Class D Peavey Mini Mega
They are both very transparent.......for what I want out of an amp, I dont need to buy into all the tech nerd 'this is warmer than that' yadda yadda: any variances in 'analog warmth vs digital sterile' between the GB and Peavey MiniMega may be noticed by discerning ears or amp enthusiasts with their ear magnifying glasses and calipers....I dont think the differences are that detrimental to achieving what I want out of an amp
They are both very transparent.......for what I want out of an amp, I dont need to buy into all the tech nerd 'this is warmer than that' yadda yadda: any variances in 'analog warmth vs digital sterile' between the GB and Peavey MiniMega may be noticed by discerning ears or amp enthusiasts with their ear magnifying glasses and calipers....I dont think the differences are that detrimental to achieving what I want out of an amp
I used to be very into high end audio. I have heard a lot of great speakers and amplifiers. I mostly purchased class A/B amps, as I liked the power ratio to size/weight vs tubes...and I hate warm up times and changing tubes. In the 90s and 2000s class A/B was the best I could afford that would give me orchestra dynamics with my speaker choices. I particularly remember my Acarian Alon IIs sounding incredible powered by the Acurus amplifiers. I also had Sony ES, Carver, Classé, Bryston, McCormack, ...the who's who of amps. At the time, Bang & Olufsen and Linn were introducing the Ice Power amps.
Today, my cheap Crown xls 1002 at $330.00 will beat the pants off of those multi thousand dollar amps, at 1/3 the weight. More power and cleaner, with zero hiss and no fan noise (It has a fan but I have not been able to make it come on). I still have HiFi speakers (Elac Referenz) but mostly I listen through a pair of Bose 901s, which sometimes double as a PA in a pinch. And no, the 901s are not HiFi, but they are enjoyable in my space. I listen to music differently now...more as background than as critical listening.
As @agedhorse said, the last 20 years have shown that Class D can punch with the best of them. For $1500 today, you can put together a better system than I had at $20,000 years ago. We live in fantastic times for amps!
Today, my cheap Crown xls 1002 at $330.00 will beat the pants off of those multi thousand dollar amps, at 1/3 the weight. More power and cleaner, with zero hiss and no fan noise (It has a fan but I have not been able to make it come on). I still have HiFi speakers (Elac Referenz) but mostly I listen through a pair of Bose 901s, which sometimes double as a PA in a pinch. And no, the 901s are not HiFi, but they are enjoyable in my space. I listen to music differently now...more as background than as critical listening.
As @agedhorse said, the last 20 years have shown that Class D can punch with the best of them. For $1500 today, you can put together a better system than I had at $20,000 years ago. We live in fantastic times for amps!
Well, you can certainly encode digital information in an audio signal. Thats how the “disk-drive” on a Sinclair ZX-81 worked. It just sounds like white noise if you play it through a speaker.
Also the classic modem dial-up sound ubiquitous to the 1990’s would be another example.
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Class D amplifiers use pulse width modulation (PWM). If you want to learn more about Class D amplifiers, I suggest Maxim's Application Note 3977. It's filed under "Analog -> Audio". Maxim is one of the company that makes the integrated circuits for Class D amplifiers. Notice that it's under "analog". Or you can go read the application note, take a few semesters of electrical engineering classes and prove it to yourself. You'll also need to take some math classes to get there.
There is "digital PWM"; I had a lab in grad school where we used a field programmable gate array (FPGA) to generate and play music using PWM (with a decent low pass filter). The PWM wasn't really the point of the the lab, but it was kind of fun to get music out.
But Class D amps? Not digital by definition.
Also, because something is "digital" (AKA sampled with an analog to digital converter, processed, then typically pushed back to analog through a digital to analog converter) doesn't mean it sounds bad. We have 100+ dB of dynamic range in our I/O now, and the processing is really awesome. It's not 1983 anymore.
There is "digital PWM"; I had a lab in grad school where we used a field programmable gate array (FPGA) to generate and play music using PWM (with a decent low pass filter). The PWM wasn't really the point of the the lab, but it was kind of fun to get music out.
But Class D amps? Not digital by definition.
Also, because something is "digital" (AKA sampled with an analog to digital converter, processed, then typically pushed back to analog through a digital to analog converter) doesn't mean it sounds bad. We have 100+ dB of dynamic range in our I/O now, and the processing is really awesome. It's not 1983 anymore.
Class D amps switch the series pass device(s) with a square wave, between cutoff and saturation; hence my comment about running an analog output into heavy clip / square wave. The only difference is the class D is switched at an ultrasonic frequency that is pulse width modulated by the audio.
The comment was partially an attempt at humor.
Edit: Oh, I see Poppunk beat me to the draw.
Haha when I saw this thread, my BS radar went off so I just scrolled down to make sure that @agedhorse had chimed in.
Nothing that develops any appreciable power output though.
I’m interested in an explanation of those “distinct frequencies.” Disclosure: I’m a retired electrical engineer and I never encountered a waveform-frequency connection of that kind in my career.
Mine was a nightmare. It was loud but the amp was too powerful for the speaker, so I kept blowing them, and finally blew so many Peavey's warranty wouldn't cover anything else. The amp then straight up died during a gig. I haven't owned a lot of bass amps, but it was by far the worst.
Yep, but it sure sounds impressive to those that don't know the difference.
I might not be expressing that well. If you have a synthesizer set to produce square wave output and you press the middle C key, it will produce a distinct square wave at 440 Hz. It's not arbitrary.
