MR. Big,
I hear you. You mention some of my fave (particularly Pass whose products I've owned and loved). But I'll tell you this: after holding the Class D Audio, and again this is not a fly-by-night enterprise unless you consider 14 years fly-by-night and/or that Tom Rost is being untruthful when asserting he's been designing/selling amps for that long, it's a solid kit that inspires nothing but confidence. When you turn the units on, no spitting, popping, or clicking, nothing but dead silence. And, as noted in the threads herein, extraordinary sound. Moreover, I fear that many consider the overbuilt audio jewelry to be the norm. I've come to respect the audio engineer who's able to resist the tendency to pander by building large and heavy when neither are required nor honoring "form follows function." And I get that aesthetics is wholly meaningful. I just don't discount makers who can't/wodon't engage that paradigm. Some of my all-time favorite amps were built by a gentleman, George Wright, now passed away. George once built me a pair of 2A3 amps and the casement and transformers showed external signs of rust. Garage-built looking shit. But their sound? Their reliability? Their soul? Glorious and unimpeachable. Just like George - one of the kindest men I ever met. Likewise, Doyman Planov, in Prague built my custom Hartung OTL which are utterly remarkable and the antithesis of the audio jewelry so common today. George and Domen and Don Hoglund (Granite Audio) are small-time makers of gear that has something most of the McAudio makers do not - soul, sauce, juice. Perhaps I've been lucky in that my gear has proven so reliable - indeed every bit as reliable as the big boys and, in fact, more so. I won't tell you how many times I had to return my PS Audio transports with their $18 ASUS drive. And, at $200/pop to send back to CO, wait several weeks waiting, shipping to and fro...After the first time,, I took the damn transport apart myself, saw the shitty cheap ASUS drive, and bought 6 off Amazon. Ended up replacing them 4x's over the next 2 years. And, be clear, I respect PS Audio and hope they continue to do well. Good people work hard to build good products. Similar stories for other big boy makers. The point is that thinking the "big boys" do better quality or design because they're the big boys has proven, for me, to be utterly fallacious. I've represented several makers whom I won't/cacan't identify and I know the financial pressures associated with commercial audio. Maybe if more folks saw the "sausage" being made they might not invest so much confidence in the big-boy paradigm. FWIW
Well said and I appreciate your views. I do know from working for Sony, how much design and parts went into their high-quality ES lines back in my time with them. Look inside of an SCD1 SACD CD player, it was a work of art in all facets, It looked like a piece of medical equipment, the layout, how noise was lowered, the drive, and on and on, plus the quality of the work and layout. I saw inside of other units by small high-end companies, that were crap compared to the SCD1 and charged 3-4 times more, so I understand having an audiophile name brand does not mean quality. PS Audio's new SACD transport uses the Marantz SA-10 transport, so that is a solid transport, their 1st one looks like OEM crap to me, and I knew it was not that good long term.
Esoteric nowadays builds as Sony, Luxman also, and a few others, their designs are just beautiful, along with fantastic power supplies, and that is where the rubber meets the road on any unit is the power supply, it makes or breaks any unit, and having built some tube gear back in the day I can tell you that as I beef up the power supplies even in the preamp the better it sounded, which is why some gear weighs so much, my old Esoteric k-01 weighed in at 70lbs if I recalled, you say hell its a CD player can't weigh that much, well look at the design, not one large transformer but 4, transport, and on and on, was it worth 20K? I say yes when I have seen others selling at 10K with OME parts and Phillip pro drives and cheap power supplies but hidden with a knock-out outer casing. I know also that a small designer can build good products Doug Sachs is well known, Dave Belles gear is very musical.
My tube preamp sounded better than my Audio Research one did, but it was basic in looks, but my power supply was a lot better and my design had fewer parts in it but did mine have resale value even though it sounded great, nope, but ARC did which I see selling today at over $3,000 because its the SP3A vintage 1970's with a myth built around it, while in fact, its sound was so, so, In fact, I looked at the design and took out some of the unneeded parts and it sound night and day better, in fact, ARC was doing that also later when they offered updates, I beat them to the punch on that. But I could not give mine away, so I gave it to a friend who used it for the next 20 years! So I know that being small does not mean you cannot build good-sounding gear, but I also know this hobby, and most never keep their gear and are always looking for the next big thing/upgrade and that is why I feel for myself I buy gear that holds value, so when I sell it I can get some of my money back to buy another replacement product.
As I aged and learned I fully accept now that when it is a product is real, real good then change becomes for change sake to get a different sound and this is what these new class D amps offer from reading all the positive posts. But I also read many who have tried them and while they liked them said what they missed was color, tone, overtones decay, and body and weight to the music compared to there class A/B units, though those units did not sound as clean and fast, so it like tube vs. SS, each is very good in their own way, as CD is to vinyl.
I like the future of Class D and at my age I would love he light weight of those amps, in fact I sold my McIntosh amp not for sound improvements but due to the 110lb weight, so I am down now to only 75lb amp which was much more manageable for me at 71. I never would look at 100 lb plus amps today as I did in my past 40 years in this hobby. God my Mark Levinson 333.5 I think weighed in at 150lbs, and I could mage that when needed. Those days are long gone...smile! Class D might be my final act...smile!
