Class D doesn’t stand for digital. D was just the next letter in line when ascribing amplifier technology classes.

Class D was born from a desire to escape the heat, weight and higher levels of distortion generated by traditional A/B designs with mismatched output transistors.

D originally sounded thinner and less musical than A/B.

Well, the world has changed in the last 20 years and we would be downright foolish to keep our heads in the sand. The best D amps of today are beautiful sounding- and don’t have the draw backs of age old designs.

The promise of Class D has been paying off handsomely through NAD in particular! The new NAD integrateds and power amps have HUNDREDS of times less distortion than traditional amps. They run cool, even when you work ‘em hard. And, they don’t break!

After being in the biz half a hundred years, I can tell you without question, that HEAT KILLS. No two output transistors perform identically. The fewer Ts you have, the less distortion you’ll hear. D amps don’t have the problems of traditional amps with piles of transistors.

Remember the amps of yesteryear? If a company like GAS or SAE made a 50×2 amp, it sounded better than their 200×2 amps. But we often needed bigger amps to drive bigger speakers LOUDER. So we ended up with harsher sounding amps.

An amp with a dozen Ts would sound harsher than an amp with 4Ts. Yet we had to live with this problem “forever” because we needed the POWER.

Part and parcel of the 200 w/ch amps was that we needed MORE (mismatched) transistors, which sounded decidedly grainy (THD) and ran hotter- with worse reliability.

We don’t have to accept this anymore!

Modern D amps pretty much began with Rotel and Peachtree. They used IcePower modules from B&O. They sounded good and were bullet proof. We sold many. They’re fast and reliable.

Most listeners felt the state of tech was upgraded with Hypex and UcD designs- many of which we have today. They sound clean and drive challenging loads well.

The nCore technology is another option to the Hyex UcD designs.

The latest of all of them is the exquisite Eigentakt creation employed most notably by NAD.

Please consider NAD’s new integrateds or power amps. The distortion is so low that it can barely be measured. They run cool. They are reliable (!!). They reveal musical nuances that big hot amps obfuscate due to their hum and distortion.

The new Ds are so good, you need to treat yourself to a listen.

I know your audiophile buddies will rant on and on about their big boy flame throwing amplifiers. That’s fine. It’s a fun hobby and if you love your 1975 Firebird 400, go nuts. But as for me, I want the new amps. They’re absolutely better.