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The Absolute Sound (TAS) doesn't like digital amps much

I was somewhat surprised by the November issue of TAS which had a round up of digital amps, from NuForce, Rowland, Cary, Kharma etc.

If I was to summarize all the reviews, they didn't think the digital (class D / T switching type amps) were quite there yet, mainly in the treble region. Many of them found the treble to be "funny". They used terms like compressed, dynamically constrained, colored, etc. Not that this is a new complaint against switching amps, but on some of the more sophisticated designs that I've heard, it hasn't really been much of an issue. The only amp they really liked was the Kharma (which I haven't heard.)

In their round table discussion, Krell's amp designer was particularly savage in his criticism of digital / switching amps in general (he points out their inability to generate a clean square wave as a sign of fundamental flaws in their capabilities.)

They even sort of went back on their previous positive NuForce review, saying that some people will love NuForce amps and some people will hate it, but they can't recommend it universally. Basically they don't like the sound "out of the box" of either Tripath or ICEPower modules.

No Bel Canto or PS Audio reviews in this issue, which I thought was a strange omission from a roundup of digital amps.

Overall an interesting wake up call given all the hype digitals have been receiving, but I wonder if they haven't gone a bit overboard in their criticisms.

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Topic - The Absolute Sound (TAS) doesn't like digital amps much - sethk@survivormail.com 11:34:54 11/1/06 (60)
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