to class D. Been doing a lot of research. Soooo much BS out there on magical input stages. ( a 30 year old Signetics OP-amp is better than most esoteric input stages) Seems the Hypex are the preferred. Finding smaller companies that are being well received. VTV and March as examples. Some, like PS seem to sell the same stuff for twice the price. I may, again may, try one out as most do have trial and return offers. No chance in hearing a good one around here as in NC, they seem to think a Denon AVR is high end. I have condescended to look as the availability of decent AB amps is shrinking fast. Either too expensive to start with, e.g. Benchmark, or all the hype for so-so like Cambridge. Rotel, NAD, and Parasound still make them but prices are getting up there. Seems all their efforts are also shifted to class D. Curious, many of the new amps are balanced input only. That does not seem logical for sub $1K consumer products. Logic might say someone like Parasound is not going to make a turkey, but I have a Z3 amp, and it is. Mostly I think the box is just not big enough for sufficient power supply caps. Wish I could find a schematic. Bought it as a bench amp and found it to be lacking.
I did spring for a new DAC, SMSL SanSkrit 10, and a USB isolator. I will be curious to see if I can hear any difference to my 15 year old Muse. ( .008% second order,20 to 20. All other distortion below my test threshold of 110 dB. ) I hope the isolator will remove that last bit of LF and 60 Hz noise I assume coming from the PC/music server.
I did spring for a new DAC, SMSL SanSkrit 10, and a USB isolator. I will be curious to see if I can hear any difference to my 15 year old Muse. ( .008% second order,20 to 20. All other distortion below my test threshold of 110 dB. ) I hope the isolator will remove that last bit of LF and 60 Hz noise I assume coming from the PC/music server.
Comment