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Not sure if it’s the brands that I’ve tried, but class D has sounded colder and on the brighter side of neutral to my ears; therefore, I prefer class AB.
I already posted my experiences with amps before, but my recommendation is always to try as much as possible.
The technology does not have a specific sound. It is the manufacturer’s implementation of it that makes the sound.
You can have bad designs in every class of amp.
There are even some bright sounding tube amps out there believe it or not.
I have to agree with Lukas on this. The class of amp is not the determining factor in how it sounds. I have heard great and bad-sounding implementations of all amp classes, even class A.
Class D amps generally had issues in the early days, the amps sounded pretty hard and sibilant. Nowadays there are many great Class D designs that sound wonderful.
Part of what I’m wandering is, if people have tried some of the class d amps with the Arendal speakers and if they are happy with the sound. I am of course thinking of more expensive amps not a few hundred dollar ones. When trying a particular high end class d, the bass was very exaggerated and the mid range seemed excessively prominent. At first I thought the bass was due to the very broad frequency range of class d amps but then I purchased a class a/b that also had the same very broad frequency range but everything sounds spot on. It seemed no matter what I tried the sub never seemed to integrate well with that amp (it was $3200.00). It made me wander then if other people had similar experiences with class d and their Arendal speakers?? I do realize manufactures go after a certain sound signature at times but it just didn’t sound natural to me. There could be many different reasons for this, maybe not even the amp. It doesn’t mean class d is bad, just my experience.
I am using a pretty inexpensive Class D amp with Pascal modules and it sounds very balanced.
Nothing to complain about, nothing that sticks out.
Out of curiosity, I want to try those Purifi Eigentakt modules, pretty expensive though.
Hi Lukas
I was wandering about the Purifi modules myself. Never tried those but everyone alludes to them being the cream of the crop of class d so to speak. They seem to be very expensive as you said. The problem these days it seems as if new this or new that comes out everyday. We would all go broke trying to keep up with the latest “technology”. This is why when I find what works for me, it’s what stays for a very long time, even decades.
Same here. I try to test everything that could be interesting and then make a decision.
Most of the gear I keep for a long time. Especially amps don’t really age so it makes sense to go for something good.
Agree with trying different equipment but on your posts it looks like you have. In my experience it’s the quality of the brand and build that makes the difference. If you are buying in the $3,200 range you have quality options. I ended up with the Rotel RB 1582 MKIi an AB amp and Rotel RC 1572 MKII preamp. Combined about $3,300. The bass has been present for a number of speakers I tested, midrange is fine but the high end can be a little bright depending on the speaker. The other key for me was power output. Many manufacturers and reviewers note the efficiency of many tower speakers and that 50 watts is enough to drive them. My big switch was moving from a Denon AVR with AB amp for both movies and music to a dedicated amp/preamp for 2 channel music with the speakers biwired. Went from 140 watts to 200 at 8 ohms (and higher for both at 4 ohms like the Arendal 1723 S Towers) and noticed an improvement across the dynamic range at both low and high volumes.
Rotel makes really good amps. Sold and installed a lot of them in my time. Definitely a recommendation.
The NAD C298 and M23 get great overall reviews so these might be worth considering as they have the Purifi Eigentakt amplification. Would love to do an A/B comparison with AB amp though.
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