Hi
Im a little bit confused by the current trends that seem to making out class D as something wonderful.
In the Public Address/Alarm market class D has been around for 10 years or so and is the defacto standard. Certain companies like Crown have developed their own propriatery technology that is similar, Crowns is I believe called Class I.
The reason why Class D technology appeals to our market is that it is very efficient, low heat output, low space requirements and therefore very economical. It is widely accepted that the audio quality of Class D is inferior to other more traditional methods such as Class A or A/B. Of course in the Public Address/Alarm market we only care care about 300-4000 Hz so its not important.
Im not a design guy but I do know that the principal of Class D operation is very similar to a switched mode PSU and it involved switching the input audio into small chunks at around 40 khz then amplifying these small segments, the signal is the regenererated at the higher power, the main problems with Class D has always been noisy operation ( electrical not acoustic) ,instability and poor sound quality. I cannot understand how class D can suddenly be considered audiophile, from every angle the performance of pure class A design is therotically the best way to amplifiy. All the benefits of class D are aimed at commercial cost/size applications.
So having said the above it just seems to me as if we are being conned with the promotion of class D as being an audiophile standard, its being sold as something new and great and therefore expensive. In actual fact the technology is very cheap and cheerful and is used as a much cheaper lower quality alternative to class A or A/B in all commercial & industrial audio amplification needs.
Interested to hear comments
Steve
Hi
Im a little bit confused by the current trends that seem to making out class D as something wonderful.
In the Public Address/Alarm market class D has been around for 10 years or so and is the defacto standard. Certain companies like Crown have developed their own propriatery technology that is similar, Crowns is I believe called Class I.
The reason why Class D technology appeals to our market is that it is very efficient, low heat output, low space requirements and therefore very economical. It is widely accepted that the audio quality of Class D is inferior to other more traditional methods such as Class A or A/B. Of course in the Public Address/Alarm market we only care care about 300-4000 Hz so its not important.
Im not a design guy but I do know that the principal of Class D operation is very similar to a switched mode PSU and it involved switching the input audio into small chunks at around 40 khz then amplifying these small segments, the signal is the regenererated at the higher power, the main problems with Class D has always been noisy operation ( electrical not acoustic) ,instability and poor sound quality. I cannot understand how class D can suddenly be considered audiophile, from every angle the performance of pure class A design is therotically the best way to amplifiy. All the benefits of class D are aimed at commercial cost/size applications.
So having said the above it just seems to me as if we are being conned with the promotion of class D as being an audiophile standard, its being sold as something new and great and therefore expensive. In actual fact the technology is very cheap and cheerful and is used as a much cheaper lower quality alternative to class A or A/B in all commercial & industrial audio amplification needs.
Interested to hear comments
Steve