Hi Chris, I just noticed your channel and had to watch it as I am a life long DIYer from the 60s to now, and also I had the opportunity a while back to trade a bunch of emails with Bruno Putzeys over the subject of whether a class D amplifier is an analog or digital kind of amplifier. I started off with the assertion that because it applied the power in pulses rather than infinitely varying the power that it had to be considered a digital type of amplifier, which countered his claim as class D being an analog amplifier. To make a long story short, I ended up changing my mind after Bruno finally convinced me that the pulse widths from the PWM modulator infinitely varied from zero to 100% duty cycle rather than in fixed clock intervals, although this took several back and forth emails and schematic analysis iterations. Anyway, I agree that class D is the future of audio power amplification which is why I am using it in my current active speaker design.
I am always happy to promote great independent music. I have been a fan of your label for some time. If you would like me to feature future releases in my videos, just let me know.
Thanks for your excellent revue, Chris. I have started to become interested in class-D amplifiers, after currently using class-A amplifiers that I build myself many years ago. Unfortunately, my problem is that I use electrostatic speakers that have an exceptionally low impedance (1 ohm) at very high frequencies (20kHz) and it seems most class-D amplifiers with current-limiting built in will most likely mute if I set the output level too high..
Which electrostatic speakers? In general these new purify amplfiers would do well with most electrostatic speakers. If you had very demanding electo stats like Sound labs? or similar perhaps you would need something like a Sanders amp. Anyway I recently changed from a 20Watt excellent SET amp for powering Quad 2912 (I know probably not a great match but had awesome midrange) to a NAD C298 and it has more than enough power and current and sounds excellent! Compared to the SET the bass is much more controlled and has more high end which I had wanted.
@@carlwilliams7380 Thanks for your comments, Carl. Things have moved on a little since I last wrote because I, too, have subsequently bought myself a NAD C298 but I am not using it to drive the electrostatic speakers, as I have a second system in which I was using the equivalent of a Quad 405 current dumping amplifier and I'm really delighted with the improvement the NAD has made to the sound in that system. Class-D amplifiers have clearly made giant strides in recent times. The top end is much sweeter and the bass deeper and better defined.The electrostatics in question are the Acoustat SPECTRA 6600 units (I have serial numbers 3 and 4) and I feared that the NAD would current-limit on a fairly regular basis if I used that amp to drive them. I have already written to NAD about the issue and the person who replied to my query agreed with me.
@@DIYHiFiLife I see you have mentioned the Parks Audio Puffin (my current phono pre) and the PS Audio Stellar phono (on my audition list). What is your favorite phono stage? I would love to know your thoughts/opinions on the Stellar, Puffin and other phono preamps you own.
Thanks for watching. I am not a fan of expensive power cords. I use inexpensive but well made IronWorks power cords from Amazon. They are used in Cloud Server Centers and come in fun colors. I like the Red and Yellow!
Thanks for the video. I have been interested in the "class D amps" for some time, even built a icepower amp and it's sounds great. I'm Looking at other class d molules with interest but find that most sources are outside of the USA so it was nice seeing one here. But I have read on many forums (really to many forums) that the VTV"s amplifier build quality is not great. Have you found this to be the case?
Hi Gary, thanks for watching my video. I think the build quality of VTV Amps is just fine. I also have found that Warren Coleman at VTV is very responsive. He offers a 30-day home trial. I don't think you can do much better price wise?
Not a techie by any means but can you hear the distortion or lack between this and say my cheapie outlaw 2200? Which puts out 200 and 300 in 4ohms and measures decent?
Did You mean Iron Box Power Cords? What model/configuration do you use for your system? They look like very good value. Also, have you seen the rating from Audio Science Review on the Magnapan LRS speakers? What do you think of their review?
Yes Iron Box power cords is what I use. I use the standard IEC cords. Red and Yellow are my favorite colors. ;) I am a fan of ASR and read most reviews. I was not surprised by the LSR measurements. That is the paradox of HiFi. Some things measure very poorly and yet are widely loved by many people? I am not a hundred percent convinced that the the Spinorama (Klippel) measurement system is able to handle Dipole speakers such as the Maggies? I could be wrong. While measurements are important (especially with electronics), it is also important to supplement with intution and experience. An analogy would be a car mechanic who uses an Autel OBD scanner to determine what is wrong with a car. This same mechanic, with decades of experience, may also be able to simply listen to an engine and diagnose with great accuracy what is wrong. I have been able to get tremendous sound quality out of the modestly priced LRS but it took time, adjustment, and analysis to wring out their virutues.
Hi, thanks for good video,you make mi to think to order vtv purifi. I have lrs ,is it power from amp good for lrs, everybody telling you need more power for magneplanar?
The Purifi puts out plenty of power for the LRS. It will also drive the .7 and 1.7i with ease. Haven't seen them with the 3.7i yet but they should be fine on those also.
The Purifi does not produce 425 watts. Per the ASR bench test, one module makes 257 watts @ 4 ohms and 131 watts @ 8 ohms before distortion shoots up. This is far short of the advertised power. It really sounds good, my favorite Class D for sure.
Yeah with this technology and NAD’s current offerings I don’t see any reason to do it DIY. For the price point of either the C298 which is your basic amp up to the M33 which is a one and done solution that does everything from streaming to decoding to Dirac room correction, there really isn’t a need for a DIY solution. Just go buy an NAD.
What if you don't like it's native sound, you would have to get a dac anyways. Whereas you can get the nc252, network streamer, geshelli j2 Akm, and a decent preamp for less than the m33.
@@BrentLeVasseur The setup I recommended can be had for less than $1500 and you still get pretty much the same sound, you can change dacs to alter or do EQ.
Yes that is something I have always said. When you mentioned that on a CD you had great dynamic range.. It is the information content that is placed on the format that determine if it is high or low dynamic range. It is not that the CD format that is sounding bad, bad sounding content have given its bad reputation. It is bad quality music with compression that were put on the format that gave the format bad reputation.. ..don't shoot the messenger.. So where does it leave us then.. when you have the today standard quality recordings and offer those at super duper high resolution files. Does that make their sound quality go up? Of course not we can not get something that were not there in the first place.. will the dynamic range jump up to twenty.. no of the same reason.. So why are everybody chasing their tails and what super duper high resolution with trillion bits? Is it to preserve the little sound quality that the record label have decided us to have and make the least damage on that bad material? Then to be fair high dynamic range is just appropriate when you are sitting in sweet spot and listening. In the car stereo it is useless and you are better with a compressed version of the same album (noisy environment). And when all is about money and we audiophiles are less than 1% of the music consumers then record labels want to make money from the majority so they get the recording and make sure that loudness is done so the lowest levels is bumped up so average Joe can hear them in their car or wherever. Thanks that there is some audiophile labels.
Thank you for watching my video. There are many great recordings out there from 16bits on up. I think some people get carried away with thinking the larger the number (e.e.g 192k/24b) the better the sound. In addition to the audiophile labels, smaller independent labels often release fantastic sounding music because it is more is simply recorded and mastered.
Avoid hi resolution formats. There is hardly any music available and the difference is zilch unless your system costs north of $50K. Even then it's a crapshoot. In 2 or 3 years another fad will have taken the place of MQA, DSD and the others.
One easy way to disqualify class-D is to listen to a DSD piano recording, aaargh horrifying! Intermodulation distortion in buckets. The Purifi 1ET400A is NO exception. When you have learned how it sounds, you will hear it in all kind of music, then go buy a class-AB amp and be happy.
This "hypex" module you are using, does it have the 1612 opamp or the 4562 opamp? I think if wanted it to be as close to original as possible, you may have chosen the wrong one.
Hi Chris, I just noticed your channel and had to watch it as I am a life long DIYer from the 60s to now, and also I had the opportunity a while back to trade a bunch of emails with Bruno Putzeys over the subject of whether a class D amplifier is an analog or digital kind of amplifier. I started off with the assertion that because it applied the power in pulses rather than infinitely varying the power that it had to be considered a digital type of amplifier, which countered his claim as class D being an analog amplifier. To make a long story short, I ended up changing my mind after Bruno finally convinced me that the pulse widths from the PWM modulator infinitely varied from zero to 100% duty cycle rather than in fixed clock intervals, although this took several back and forth emails and schematic analysis iterations. Anyway, I agree that class D is the future of audio power amplification which is why I am using it in my current active speaker design.
Great to hear from you. Very cool about your direct conversation with Bruno. I consider him one of the top designers in the industry.
@@DIYHiFiLife When I have a question, I go to the top! 😀
@@StewartMarkley very cool. 😎
Thanks for the mention about our sampler! Cheers!
I am always happy to promote great independent music. I have been a fan of your label for some time. If you would like me to feature future releases in my videos, just let me know.
Thanks for your excellent revue, Chris. I have started to become interested in class-D amplifiers, after currently using class-A amplifiers that I build myself many years ago. Unfortunately, my problem is that I use electrostatic speakers that have an exceptionally low impedance (1 ohm) at very high frequencies (20kHz) and it seems most class-D amplifiers with current-limiting built in will most likely mute if I set the output level too high..
Which electrostatic speakers? In general these new purify amplfiers would do well with most electrostatic speakers. If you had very demanding electo stats like Sound labs? or similar perhaps you would need something like a Sanders amp. Anyway I recently changed from a 20Watt excellent SET amp for powering Quad 2912 (I know probably not a great match but had awesome midrange) to a NAD C298 and it has more than enough power and current and sounds excellent! Compared to the SET the bass is much more controlled and has more high end which I had wanted.
@@carlwilliams7380 Thanks for your comments, Carl. Things have moved on a little since I last wrote because I, too, have subsequently bought myself a NAD C298 but I am not using it to drive the electrostatic speakers, as I have a second system in which I was using the equivalent of a Quad 405 current dumping amplifier and I'm really delighted with the improvement the NAD has made to the sound in that system. Class-D amplifiers have clearly made giant strides in recent times. The top end is much sweeter and the bass deeper and better defined.The electrostatics in question are the Acoustat SPECTRA 6600 units (I have serial numbers 3 and 4) and I feared that the NAD would current-limit on a fairly regular basis if I used that amp to drive them. I have already written to NAD about the issue and the person who replied to my query agreed with me.
Perfect ! Good video. Would like to hear what you think of your PS Audio Stellar equipment ?
Thanks for watching. The PS Audio Stellar Phono is a very nice phone stage. Very happy so far.
@@DIYHiFiLife I see you have mentioned the Parks Audio Puffin (my current phono pre) and the PS Audio Stellar phono (on my audition list). What is your favorite phono stage? I would love to know your thoughts/opinions on the Stellar, Puffin and other phono preamps you own.
Enjoyed your video. Appreciate your impressions of the progress being made in class D amplification.
Glad you enjoyed it! Yes, Class D is coming on strong.
I just got the VTV Hypex NC252MP.
Sounds great. VTV seems to be on a roll.
Thanks for sharing a tour of your system and the new amp. Do you think the VTV amp would benefit from aftermarket power cords or power conditioning?
Thanks for watching. I am not a fan of expensive power cords. I use inexpensive but well made IronWorks power cords from Amazon. They are used in Cloud Server Centers and come in fun colors. I like the Red and Yellow!
Great episode.
Great review--could you post the music you mentioned--sure I'm not the only one?
Thanks for the video. I have been interested in the "class D amps" for some time, even built a icepower amp and it's sounds great. I'm Looking at other class d molules with interest but find that most sources are outside of the USA so it was nice seeing one here. But I have read on many forums (really to many forums) that the VTV"s amplifier build quality is not great. Have you found this to be the case?
Hi Gary, thanks for watching my video. I think the build quality of VTV Amps is just fine. I also have found that Warren Coleman at VTV is very responsive. He offers a 30-day home trial. I don't think you can do much better price wise?
Nice video. VTV isn't the best of the breed anymore. The quality is a hit or miss.
Not a techie by any means but can you hear the distortion or lack between this and say my cheapie outlaw 2200? Which puts out 200 and 300 in 4ohms and measures decent?
Did You mean Iron Box Power Cords? What model/configuration do you use for your system? They look like very good value. Also, have you seen the rating from Audio Science Review on the Magnapan LRS speakers? What do you think of their review?
Yes Iron Box power cords is what I use. I use the standard IEC cords. Red and Yellow are my favorite colors. ;) I am a fan of ASR and read most reviews. I was not surprised by the LSR measurements. That is the paradox of HiFi. Some things measure very poorly and yet are widely loved by many people? I am not a hundred percent convinced that the the Spinorama (Klippel) measurement system is able to handle Dipole speakers such as the Maggies? I could be wrong.
While measurements are important (especially with electronics), it is also important to supplement with intution and experience. An analogy would be a car mechanic who uses an Autel OBD scanner to determine what is wrong with a car. This same mechanic, with decades of experience, may also be able to simply listen to an engine and diagnose with great accuracy what is wrong.
I have been able to get tremendous sound quality out of the modestly priced LRS but it took time, adjustment, and analysis to wring out their virutues.
Great video, thanks...
Thanks for watching.
Hi, thanks for good video,you make mi to think to order vtv purifi.
I have lrs ,is it power from amp good for lrs, everybody telling you need more power for magneplanar?
The Purifi puts out plenty of power for the LRS. It will also drive the .7 and 1.7i with ease. Haven't seen them with the 3.7i yet but they should be fine on those also.
Thanks for watching. I think the Purifi will power almost any speaker I am aware of.
Schiit freya+
Musical paradise mp-701 mk2
Tube preamplifier do you have some suggestions?
Thank you
The Purifi does not produce 425 watts. Per the ASR bench test, one module makes 257 watts @ 4 ohms and 131 watts @ 8 ohms before distortion shoots up. This is far short of the advertised power. It really sounds good, my favorite Class D for sure.
Thanks for watching. There are diiferent ways to report specifications, hence the discrepencies.
@@DIYHiFiLife What's the rated power output for 2 channels at 8 ohms?
Yeah with this technology and NAD’s current offerings I don’t see any reason to do it DIY. For the price point of either the C298 which is your basic amp up to the M33 which is a one and done solution that does everything from streaming to decoding to Dirac room correction, there really isn’t a need for a DIY solution. Just go buy an NAD.
Thanks for watching. You make good points, but there is always the itch some of us have to try new things. Hene the input butter option.
What if you don't like it's native sound, you would have to get a dac anyways. Whereas you can get the nc252, network streamer, geshelli j2 Akm, and a decent preamp for less than the m33.
@@BrentLeVasseur The setup I recommended can be had for less than $1500 and you still get pretty much the same sound, you can change dacs to alter or do EQ.
Yes that is something I have always said.
When you mentioned that on a CD you had great dynamic range.. It is the information content that is placed on the format that determine if it is high or low dynamic range.
It is not that the CD format that is sounding bad, bad sounding content have given its bad reputation.
It is bad quality music with compression that were put on the format that gave the format bad reputation.. ..don't shoot the messenger..
So where does it leave us then.. when you have the today standard quality recordings and offer those at super duper high resolution files.
Does that make their sound quality go up?
Of course not we can not get something that were not there in the first place.. will the dynamic range jump up to twenty.. no of the same reason..
So why are everybody chasing their tails and what super duper high resolution with trillion bits?
Is it to preserve the little sound quality that the record label have decided us to have and make the least damage on that bad material?
Then to be fair high dynamic range is just appropriate when you are sitting in sweet spot and listening.
In the car stereo it is useless and you are better with a compressed version of the same album (noisy environment).
And when all is about money and we audiophiles are less than 1% of the music consumers then record labels want to make money from the majority so they get the recording and make sure that loudness is done so the lowest levels is bumped up so average Joe can hear them in their car or wherever.
Thanks that there is some audiophile labels.
Thank you for watching my video. There are many great recordings out there from 16bits on up. I think some people get carried away with thinking the larger the number (e.e.g 192k/24b) the better the sound. In addition to the audiophile labels, smaller independent labels often release fantastic sounding music because it is more is simply recorded and mastered.
Avoid hi resolution formats. There is hardly any music available and the difference is zilch unless your system costs north of $50K. Even then it's a crapshoot. In 2 or 3 years another fad will have taken the place of MQA, DSD and the others.
One easy way to disqualify class-D is to listen to a DSD piano recording, aaargh horrifying! Intermodulation distortion in buckets.
The Purifi 1ET400A is NO exception. When you have learned how it sounds, you will hear it in all kind of music, then go buy a class-AB amp and be happy.
Thanks for adding nothing to the conversation.
This "hypex" module you are using, does it have the 1612 opamp or the 4562 opamp? I think if wanted it to be as close to original as possible, you may have chosen the wrong one.