class D - anyone?

[vitalstates]

Hi all, A. Heretic here.

Has anybody got any experience of any of the class D offerings from :

Magnatec, Hypex or LCAudio.

I'm just curious as to how they might hold out against electrostats. All the blurb I've managed to find says they are good into nasty loads, and one even says they will drive a short.....mmmmm

Regards

Ed

[Toppsy]

Ed,
I suppose the main question to ask about these amps is... are they capable of delivering high current at 2-ohms load to drive your ER Audio ESLIII's? If so they should be OK. As you are aware these speakers were developed around Class 'A' SS amps.

[vitalstates]

Hi Colin

thanks for the reply...yes unfortunately I am well aware of the SS connection as I still havnt found anything that improves on the Meridians capabilities....I think the trend in Oz at the moment is for Nelson Pass designs but I still havnt got round to building the Aleph, I know I do keep banging on about it but its a big build and therefore a big risk for an experiment....and a lot of heat.

Having said that, Class D is not SS class A....and having read all the blurb it seems most of the boards are in the 250-300 watt area when run on max rail voltage, although all of the ones I have read about will run at much reduced voltages......so that does imply there is current capability......

all the reviews mention SE type detail, even at low SPL, which is exactly what I'm looking for, but I havnt read about anybody driving ESLs.

ho hum.....

Regards

Ed

[Toppsy]

Hi Ed,

If memory serves I think Rob in OZ had a dabble with some Class D amps last year. It might be worth an email to him?

At the moment I'm driving the Acorns with the Yarland 845SE amp I bought from Paul after Eggfest3 meet. This has around 16W per channel and drives the ESLs far far better than my 6550 amp with loads of emotion, detail and bass aplenty. I'm going to swap over to the ESLIII's this weekend and drive then full range without active subs with the Yarland to compare. I think this amp will address the bass lightness of the 6500/ESLIII combo.

I do think the ESLIII are more amp dependant than the Acorns to get the best out of them. The Acorns with their larger panel area are more efficient and are a lighter amplifier load over the ESLIIIs, in my experience.

[petercom]

Class D? Why ever are you interested in Class D? In fact why would anyone think that converting a perfectly good signal, whether analogue or digital, through a D to A or D to D converter, then applying huge levels of digital feedback and EQ to turn what is essentially a highly non-linear, heavily load dependant high frequency amplifier into something that resembles an audio amp. Then you pass the resultant dynamically compressed hf signal through an output filter, with inductors that run into saturation on peaks, to remove the hf carrier and call the remaining mush hi-fi? I don't think so!

And you want to do what? Drive the lowest coloration, lowest distortion, lowest impedance, highest capacitance speakers with it? And not expect it to sound like garbage? You've got to be joking.

[pre65]

Hi-have you ever tried using the Quad II amps with the ESL ?

they are about 15wpc and were designed to go with the original ESL speakers.

Just a thought.

Philip

[vitalstates]

Thanks Peter

Bring it on.......at least thats an angle I can relate to....But like the tree in the forest, if it falls and theres nobody there to hear it, did it make a noise?

I instinctively(but blindly) agree with you. I just want to hear it to satisfy myself.

Hi Phil

I've had lots of quad gear over the years and listened to lots I havnt had, and no offence but quad II is definately not to my taste. Thanks for the idea though.

Regards

Ed