"Because they measure badly? Dusty Vawter assures me this one measures pretty well."
"It's not that they measure badly, it's because I have to be extremely careful to ensure that I don't end up measuring my test equipment's limitations."
"Does that mean class-D actually measures better than other amps?"
"Let's just say the D stands for different."
Yes, let's. And Channel Islands' D-100 monoblock is more different than most. It's small (6.25" wide by 5.5" high by 8.0"…
"I don't pretend there's anything especially sophisticated about the D-100's power supply. It uses a custom 300VA toroid, and it uses discrete Schottke diodes in the bridge rectifier. We use eight parallel capacitors—we like paralleling caps rather than just using two with large values because that tends to lower the…
Description: Class-D monoblock power amplifier. Power output: 100W into 8 ohms (20dBW), 175W into 4 ohms (19.4dBW). Input impedance: 100k ohms. Voltage gain: 32dB (version for use with passive preamplifier), 26dB (version for use with active preamplifier).
Dimensions: 6.25" (160mm) W by 5.5" (140mm) H by 8.0" (205mm) D. Weight: 15 lbs (6.8kg).
Serial numbers of units reviewed: DM1616, DM1617.
Price: $1599/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 2 (sold direct through Music Direct and Channel Islands Audio). Warranty: 1 year parts & labor.
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Digital Source: Ayre C-5xe universal player.
Preamplifiers: Ayre K-5xe, Conrad-Johnson ACT2.
Power Amplifiers: Coda Technologies S5.
Loudspeakers: Dynaudio Special 25, Thiel CS1.6, Peak Consult Empress.
Cables: Interconnect: Cardas Audio Golden Reference, Shunyata Research Aries. Speaker: Cardas Audio Golden Reference, Shunyata Research Lyra, Stereovox HDLS. AC: Cardas Audio Golden Reference, Shunyata Research Anaconda.
Accessories: Shunyata Research Hydra AC power-distribution system; Solid-Tech Rack of Silence equipment stand, Feet of…
Wes Phillips mentioned at the start of this review that I dislike measuring amplifiers with a class-D output stage. This is because such designs can throw out enough ultrasonic noise that you can never be quite sure that what you're actually measuring is the input stage of your analyzer being driven into slew-rate limiting. (For more on this subject, see the measurements sidebar accompanying Michael Fremer's review in April of the class-D Yamaha MX-D1.) What I do, therefore, is to insert, when appropriate, a sixth-order low-pass filter set to 20kHz or 30kHz…
When I measured the tiny CIA D-100 for Wes Phillips' review in August (p.113), I found that while this class-D power amplifier met its 100W power specification into 8 ohms, it failed to do so into 4 or 2 ohms. I thus recommended that the amplifier not be used with speakers whose impedances dipped below 4 ohms. CIA's Dusty Vawter addressed this point in his "Manufacturer's Comment" in that issue (p.141): "the low figures shown at 2 and 4 ohms are not due to lack of headroom, but are a result of premature current…
No one was more critical of CD than Linn Products and its founder and guru, Ivor…
Sampling-rate selection (44.1kHz or 48kHz)…
The digital filter is an 8x-oversampling unit from Burr-Brown, the DF1700. This linear-phase filter has 20-bit word output and 25-bit internal word length. I haven't seen this filter used before; most converters use the NPC or Sony digital filters.
D/A conversion is handled by dual Burr-Brown PCM63P DACs, another brand-new part. This 20-bit monolithic DAC, called a "Sign-Magnitude" converter, has some impressive performance…
Like no other digital processor I've auditioned. The Linn's musical presentation was very different from those of other digital products. In a nutshell, it was gentle, smooth, intimate, delicate, and had a remarkable sense of ease.
One of the first presentation aspects to strike me about the Linn was its laid-back character. The music was set back between and behind the loudspeakers rather than thrust forward. The word "vivid," used to describe some digital processors' presentations, certainly didn't apply to the Linn. There…