Class D - What's next?

[seamonkey]

My money is on Class E.

Class-E has also been around for a long time. A lot of modern households have a class-e amp in the kitchen.
Class-D should have gone with "PWM" for a name as there's a lot of variations in designs. It'll be around a long long time.

Class-d is the real thing.

 

[Koog]

My guess is it will not be cyclical. Innovation and technology will continue to advance and innovators will develop gear that sounds better and is even lighter weight.

I played throughout the '60s and decades forward and, gotta tell ya, don't miss that beastly, heavy, room shaking, muddy sounding gear for a minute. Love my Berg Forte and the two Berg cabs I have....switch between the HG 310 and HG 410, depending on what I need. In my opinion, my current rig sounds better than anything from the past, regardless of what I read from the purists (blasphemy, I know).

Anyhow, I look to the future with hope for positive technological evolution and likely will continue to research and experiment as new things become available.

 

[Happy Face]

Do any of you remember when synths first appeared? Specifically the "Switched On Bach" album.

There was talk that the Moog would replace whole orchestras. Well...

 

[StatesideRambler]

Also, IEMs for audience with personal volume controls. Like silent disco, but less gimmicky.

Just thinking about that visual is a Twilight Zone episode.

I guess the obvious question is "what do YOU want from new technology"?

I will never be in the vanguard here. Long ago, I told my brother that disco was completely dead. About a month later Saturday Night Fever hit the theaters. Another time I announced that solid state amplification was great for music reproduction but it had little future in creating live music. Yup. I may have been an engineer but my track record in prognostication is consistent.

 

[bassdude51]

Some kind of iAmp or something. Stuff just keeps getting better. Or, does it?

 

[Malafaia]

I think class D are already dying. at least there is no need of an amp/cab/combo to make sound or even make music. I know some professionals that don't own amps/cabs anymore and gig just with bass and a pedalboard...

But I have some bets:
1) with better, smaller and even different processors we will reach a day that digital pedals will sound better than analogic;
2) bands playing live in internet for thousands of people, the players and the public will be each one at home and it will be common;
3) a new affordable material that makes strings last forever with the same tone;
4) new materials that anyone will print their good toned bass at home using a 3d printer;
5) or no bass at all (and we will be like "The last bass hero I remember was Joe Dart and it was 50 years ago")

 

[klyph]

Bring your own wireless buds/headphones... FOH mix sent direct. Was predicted awhile ago, might take another decade, but that is where we’re headed.

 

[JW56789]

My question would be is if and when the market will want to hear bass as it's heard in EDM and car audio, that massive lumpy subwoofer-ish type bass from keyboards: When my generation of Flintstones is no longer a market driver, is that where it will head as youngsters raised on that stuff thru earbuds and EDM rooms want 'that' sound ?

 

[BAG]

there cannot be much more you can squeeze from a cone driver. We’re already at the limit.

Are you in the speaker design business?
If so, i might be inclined to beleive you, if not, I'll wait to see what happens. I'm sure people have said that speaker design is at the limit many times in the past and been proven wrong.
Would anyone from 1980 or even later than that have believed that a single 10" speaker could handle 300w (rms) in the bass spectrum and sound good on a 10" combo that only weighs 40lbs? Yet that is what Schertler have with their B10, and it is amazing.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

We're moving towards ampless. Two subs, two speakers on the sticks - they're all class D with built-in amps. A local store said they can't give away unpowered cabs. Setup is quick and easy. The next step will be the elimination of all of the cabling - just need power for the speakers and the rack mixer. If you need more than that, backline is likely provided. You may have an amp for home use, but no need to drag it out on gigs except for some situations where PA support isn't provided. SVTs will still be the desired amp of choice, but those will mostly be supplied by backline rentals, the house amp that only gets moved in and out of the storage closet or in studios.

Right now, the front plate layout is pretty much the limiting factor in making bass heads smaller. We'll probably have an amp at home, but use a digital emulation of it at the gig. Sure, the "real thing" sounds better, but the "better" is shrinking each year. My Line 6 Stomp HX has enough processing power to give really nice tones. I also have a Noble DI that I use and I think each sound great in their own right, but combining them sounds "glorious".

So, "future bassist" will need a bass, a set of IEMs, and a DI on his/her pedalboard. Of course, the bass of choice - the visual element that we see, will always be a Fender P bass, beat up a little bit with a tort pick guard. Bass manufacturers have little worry of modeling technology. We like the part of the signal chain that we touch to be the real thing. Everything else can be a black box. If they get a high quality IO for the iPad, maybe that will be future amp. The processing power of the latest iPad Pro exceeds most current laptops. So, maybe our amps will be $19.99 app downloads and double as our personal monitor mixers, and setlist / (dare I say) sheet music displays.

 

[Jay2U]

Still 22 letters left...

 

[DoctorZee]

Lo, the great prophet Neil Peart has foretold that music shall be outlawed by the year 2112, on decree by the High Priests of Syrinx, or whatever.

 

[D.A.R.K.]

Hopefully something better than the standard speaker design. It has never changed much, although it has improved.

 

[walking Bass]

My money is on Class E.

I used to drive one, great car.

 

[agedhorse]

Do any of you remember when synths first appeared? Specifically the "Switched On Bach" album.

There was talk that the Moog would replace whole orchestras. Well...

In some cases it has in the theatrical scoring and cinema side of things.

 

[_Some Dude]

When the missiles go flying tube amps will be the only ones that will still work.

Until the power goes out...

 

[fourstr00]

Wireless electricity

 

[Usidore T Blue]

People tend to take the qualities of a thing and try to define a general definition of "quality" on them. You cannot get there from there, it's all situational fit and fitnss.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

Wireless electricity

Also know as a death ray.

 

[Bassgeer]

I guess the obvious question is "what do YOU want from new technology"?

Personally I want unicorns but that might be a few years off hahahaha

In all seriousness though, are some of the new high powered amps reaching the limit of what Class D can achieve, or is it likely that the Class D architecture will remain the go-to for the foreseeable future?