Classe who has traditionally manufactured Hi Fi for the premium end of the sound market is set to use the CES Show to introduce its first Class D home amplifier.
The US $4,000 Delta CA-D200 2×200-watt stereo amplifier ships this month in the USA and will be displayed at Classe’s suite at the Mirage.
Class? whose products are sold by Convoy in Australia said its Class D implementation delivers Class D attributes but adds “superbly musical sound quality.” Class D’s key attributes consist of cool, efficient operation in a relatively small chassis with a lower price for a given power output, Classe said.
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The company said it used DSP to optimize Class D performance by lowering dead-band time, described as the gap produced when the plus and minus halves of the switching amplifier’s output stage are both off. Classe reduced the gap to 3 nanoseconds or less to reduce distortion and noise and enable minimal use of overall negative feedback, which in turn further improved sonic performance, the company said.
“Audiophiles sometimes prefer the sound of tube amplifiers, citing musical qualities that can’t be quantified in measurements,” said president Dave Nauber, “but on balance and for a variety of reasons, most of us choose solid-state amplifiers.” The CA-D200, however, “has something special going on musically speaking that defies quantification, yet it retains the benefits associated with solid-state amplifiers.” The amp’s “engaging musical quality.is not completely explained by the standard measurements,” he said.
