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Class D vs Class A or A/B

#4
All I know is that I want my amp to sound Class A. This means in terms of iy sounds so damn good. I hate these kinds of threads. Which basketball bounces higher. Go out to a store and play some then report back. This is another one to start a flame war.
 
#5
There will be contention- some people swear by the more mature class A/B power amp topology when "going large" and feel the class D power amps don't hold the line on big gigs/stage at high volumes.

My experience is that my Genz ShuttleMax 9.2 is plenty loud and beefy- plenty by a long shot! Previous experience was with Mesa and Eden class A/B power amps (Mosfets), no slouches in the amp world. The Genz is great, and their new power amp limiting technology (I forget the brand name right now) really does quite closely approximate the feel of a all-tube class A/B, which I have experienced through borrowed Mesa 400+ and Ampeg Pro2 amps (it gets very close, but both of those all tube amps did have a little something extra very pleasing, although not enough for me to justify the added weight and maintenance costs).
 
#10
wcriley said:
Somewhat off topic, but I'm curious:
Are solid state output devices ever used in a class A arrangement?
Click to expand...

Sure, there are/were high end solidstate amps for stereo systems that are/were Class A. Back in the mid '80s my brother and a friend of ours (who was the chief engineer of GAS and PIE amplifiers and other related electronics) built 4 100 watt Class A monoblock amplifiers as prototypes for a new company, but it never got off the ground (the company).
 
#11
He's probably talking about bass in the home stereo sense. It's just crazy how large (and expensive) those things are for how many watts they put out. I'd love to wire one up to a nice pre and plug my bass into it though. Kudos to phillybass if he has.

http://www.musicalfidelity.com/products/ams-series/ams50/

wcriley said:
Phillybass,
What class A bass amp have you played through?
I've never heard, or even seen, one.
Click to expand...
 
#13
Somewhat off topic, but I'm curious:
Are solid state output devices ever used in a class A arrangement?
Click to expand...

All the time, but mostly low power duty like in preamps where they serve as small signal amplifiers or as part of electronic switching circuits.

As for power amplification, only in esoteric/experimental stuff. There's a popular DIY project out there where a single, high power MOSFET is used with a giant heat sink for a whopping 5W of audio power output. In that case, the simplicity and short signal path is the attraction, as it's supposed to be a reference amplifier with ultra low noise and distortion.
 
#15
There are boutique class-a amps

hx350_gr00.jpg


supposedly 1000w but it's hard to believe. I would expect it to be even bigger with more heat sinks.

Compare that to 1000w 7lb class-d amp that only costs a couple of hundred.

Walter Woods made boutique class-d amps years ago.
 
#17
As posted by a couple of TBers, he was probably confused about preamps versus amps. Type A is pretty much just a preamp sort of deal, and as far as I can tell, most preamps are type A (could be wrong there).

My guess is, he is talking about the typical 'heavier head' (class A/B with heavy power supply typically) versus a micro (class D with a lightweight power supply typically.

To my ear, doesn't really matter... they all sound different. There are some unusual combinations (LMII/III with a class A/B power amp and SMPS, the iAmp800 and Epifani502, with a class D power amp but toriodal power supply, etc.), but you can't really distinguish the tonal differences on a blind basis (IMO) purely by class of amp and power supply design.

To the OP... listen and buy one that sounds good and fits your 'size/weight/price' requirement.
 

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