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I love all the anecdotes from people about audiophiles, it reminds me of the early days of the Randi forum. But OTOH there are very real subjective and objectiv

I love all the anecdotes from people about audiophiles, it reminds me of the early days of the Randi forum. But OTOH there are very real subjective and objective ways to discover the truth, which is that a LOT of consumer audio products are trash. Take Class D amplifiers, for instance. They're complete and total trash until you get into the $1000+ market. Or many popular DACs (the chip, not the integrated product) which just sound, for lack of a better term, trashy and cold. Nasty.

JohnBooty 4y ago
Take Class D amplifiers, for instance. They're complete and total trash until you get into the $1000+ market Naaaaaah, this isn't true at all. Here's one with state of the art performance for $800: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-la90-review-integrated-amplifier.33374/ https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/t... Lots of ones with totally acceptable performance for $100-$200 from Topping, SMSL, etc. By "totally acceptable" I mean they measure the same as affordable Class AB amps in the same price range. I've got loads of both in my house and have spent many hundreds of hours with each. One unfortunate reality for Class D amps is that admittedly, the power ratings tend to be wildly inflated. If something is advertised as "100W into 8ohms" you can bet that it's more like 40-50W before distortion rises massively in a hockey stick curve like graph. However if the buyer understands this, they still often deliver very competitive value. After all, any amp sounds bad when pushed into distortion.
mellavora 4y ago
I thought class T amplifiers were trash. Class D are more along the lines of "dogs*t".
moogly 4y ago
You really think companies like Genelec would put Class D amps in their products if they were "trash"?
- steponlego 4y ago
  Heh, yeah.
brokenmachine 4y ago
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/aiyima-a07-tpa3255-review-amplifier.18984/ https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/a... Class D, $72 and measurably better than a LOT of amplifiers out there.

JohnBooty 4y ago

Take Class D amplifiers, for instance. They're complete and total trash until you get into the $1000+ market Naaaaaah, this isn't true at all. Here's one with state of the art performance for $800: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-la90-review-integrated-amplifier.33374/ https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/t... Lots of ones with totally acceptable performance for $100-$200 from Topping, SMSL, etc. By "totally acceptable" I mean they measure the same as affordable Class AB amps in the same price range. I've got loads of both in my house and have spent many hundreds of hours with each. One unfortunate reality for Class D amps is that admittedly, the power ratings tend to be wildly inflated. If something is advertised as "100W into 8ohms" you can bet that it's more like 40-50W before distortion rises massively in a hockey stick curve like graph. However if the buyer understands this, they still often deliver very competitive value. After all, any amp sounds bad when pushed into distortion.

mellavora 4y ago

I thought class T amplifiers were trash. Class D are more along the lines of "dogs*t".

moogly 4y ago

You really think companies like Genelec would put Class D amps in their products if they were "trash"?

steponlego 4y ago
Heh, yeah.

brokenmachine 4y ago

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/aiyima-a07-tpa3255-review-amplifier.18984/ https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/a... Class D, $72 and measurably better than a LOT of amplifiers out there.