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Does class D have the Heft of SS

#181
I my experience the class d amps I've owned or tried were missing something.
Little mark III sounded great but it was missing something into the low end.
Stewart World power amp with a few different preamps also just felt like I had to really push the amp to get what I wanted.
The orange terror bass I tried in a store was completely meh.


In the end I choose class a/b solid state or tube.
 
#182
Martin Beer said:
As has already been suggested, the indefinable nature of the term "heft" makes this conversation difficult. While some are claiming that heft is the property of a stiff power supply, but Jimmy claims his B15n has it, they can't all be talking about the same property. The B15n has a tube rectified power supply, and the power transformer and filtering are adequate but certainly not generously specified, so the sag is part of its sound.
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Heft and "no heft" to me feels like two same sized pieces of same wood, where the other is more dense and heavy and other light in weight. Thay may look the same and in a sense "be" same but the feel when handling them is very different.
 
#184
Martin Beer said:
As has already been suggested, the indefinable nature of the term "heft" makes this conversation difficult. While some are claiming that heft is the property of a stiff power supply, but Jimmy claims his B15n has it, they can't all be talking about the same property. The B15n has a tube rectified power supply, and the power transformer and filtering are adequate but certainly not generously specified, so the sag is part of its sound.
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Not necessarily at the volumes I play at. Now and then I'd get the volume up there to crank world, but most of the time I'd actually have headroom left.
 
#185
The Class D amps I own/have played certainly lack the proverbial "heft" when compared to lead sled SS amps and tube amps. However, from what I understand, the newer Class D amps don't have that steep low-end roll-off that the earlier Class D offerings seemed to have, but I haven't tried any.
 
#187
MrCash said:
Why do some say class D amps are lacking in Heft!?
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"Heft" is usually used to describe weight or girth. Class D amps are purposefully smaller and lighter because...you know....technology.
If you mean tonally, I think "some" are wrong about that. My Shuttle sounds just as big as any larger SS camp. The eq of a SS amp doesn't change at all because of its size; that's all done with pretty small parts anyway. The only thing that is smaller is the power amp section, which in a SS environment, doesn't have a real bearing on tone.
 
#190
I'm going to make this into a sticker and slap it on the side of my 5lb bass head, to improve the tone.
hefty-logo.png
 
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#193
Agedhorse, years ago I purchased a Shuttle 6.0 and thought it was fine although I thought it lacked a bit of low end. So when the 9.0 came out. I was interested. Called and talked to you and Jeff, and both of you were very informative, but I do remember one of you mentioned that some bottom end was filtered out of the 6.0 because many customers would be using that generation of GB cabs which would minimize cab damage. At that time I believe either you or Jeff told me the 9.0 went lower. So does the 9.0 go as low as some of the more current designs? By the way, I bought two 9.0's based on that reccomendation. And yes, it seems to me neo cabs can get down their, but not at higher volume levels, so I continue to use heavy cabs.
 
#197
MrCash said:
If you read my posts I've been referring to when the ag500 original came out and comparing it to amps of that time period.
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It was a rhetorical question. You're talking about relatively old information about a relatively old amp. If you read mine you'll understand that that is old information. Things change.
 
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#198
JimmyM said:
I did understand your point. I just wanted to say why I thought it wasn't all that laughable. And to provoke thought and more discussion, since this thread has turned out to be somewhat better than the usual discussions on the subject. And just in case it was partially aimed at me :D

I do wish my knowledge of power amps was better, though. I've only owned one in my whole life and that was in 1981 that I bought it. Therefore I have to rely on people whose opinions I trust rather than basing them on my own experience. I do, however, have to wonder if it's true that we as bassists only get crappy lightweight power amps, why that is. Certainly I understand that a lot of us are cheap, but a lot of us also aren't cheap, and PA power amps don't seem to be so high priced to where it would make a 500w bass amp insanely priced.
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I don't think it's true. Some stereotypes are just hard to give up on.
 
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#199
vigor&kandor said:
I my experience the class d amps I've owned or tried were missing something.
Little mark III sounded great but it was missing something into the low end.
Stewart World power amp with a few different preamps also just felt like I had to really push the amp to get what I wanted.
The orange terror bass I tried in a store was completely meh.


In the end I choose class a/b solid state or tube.
Click to expand...


What kind of cab(s)? What impedance? IME the LMIII is better suited for a 4 ohm load than 8.
 

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