Who is happy with Class D amps?

I have found a way to make mine sound super sublime by thinking outside the box.

Apogee Scintillas will sound like anything you care to listen to. I like it to do all. I have heard it with Pass Labs amps of my own, and the newest too. With class A amps, the Scintilla sounds bloated in the bass, the mids receded, and the highs rolled off. Still, it's cardioid sound radiation is magical.

Now, with the trice improved H2O monos and the H2O Fire preamp, my speakers have the ability to sound like anything it is shaped by. They have sounded bold and husky like a top drawer class AB amp, dreamy like tubes galore, or cracking crazy real.

The source is paramount. It must be a non oversampling DAC with no filter and super fast diodes. There can be no substitute. After that, only the cables are left. On this system, the cables will make or break the sound. I found absolutely no commercial cable gave me what I wanted. The Shunyata Helical was very good on attack, strong highs and lows, but the mids were thin. Anti-Cables provided a marvelously romantic mid but with no excitement, and rolled off highs.

On a whim, I ordered some all nines copper ribbon and covered the ribbon with Saran Wrap. Because the negative charge travels on aluminum ribbon down the five feet of the speaker, I figured it would do no harm to run aluminum the rest of the way. I was right.

The first time I pushed the transport, I was knocked on the floor by the first stanza.

My cables are now sandwiched between tape of awesome specs. The truth about class D is it is wholly misunderstood. It has some really serious requirements for fulfillment.

Now, I can listen to any venue of music and get the full artist's intention. Classical music rises mightily and ebbs to quiet solitude with ease. Women singers step forward, with no false warmth, just the beauty of their voices. guitar and piano is freaking real.

I don't know if this recipe will work with all class D amps, but I do think it will bring out the best of any ICE amp.

This is a great owner's review of the Fire preamp:

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/amp/messages/13/136780.html

JackD201 said:

Interesting! What made you think of using aluminum for the negative? Did you figure the lower conductivity of aluminum is somehow affecting the back EMF transmission from the Apogees into the H2Os?

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Hi Jack, it has been so nice not to be pied. The Apogee Scintilla is built like there is a difference. The positive is carried by copper wire, while the negative is carried by a section of aluminum ribbon back to the terminal. I used aluminum just to see what happens. The kick is, switch the copper and aluminum SCs with each other, and the sound suffers horribly.

fork said:

Red Wine Audio are very nice. Now with tube rectified power. Extremely musical and will set many preconceived notions of Class D on their ear.

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Well now, I know that some SET systems will sound very nice and are extremely musical. However, no SET system can approach the dynamic realism of what I have here. There is a power issue. My pig of a speaker, once powered correctly, lets all the tube magic through from my Audio Note DAC. You don't even know the amps and preamp, a class A, are there at all. In a smaller room, I would certainly for Totem speakers powered by tubes. That would never be my first system, though.