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Best class D amp that’s warm like a tube amp


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1 hour ago, tubbybloke68 said:

Genz Benz streamliner , think there’s one in the classified. Very nice amps and you can pick them up quite reasonably nowadays . 😊

There’s a 600 in the classified for 220 quid, a steal for that price, and no I do not have anything to do with the seller. Just saying….x 

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The 900 Liner is a great amp!
The amp designer still services them. And despite living in Nova Scotia I sent mine off to California for some spa time. I felt the amp was well worth investing in.
 

It’s like a brand new amp.

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12 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

They do sound very tubey but there's a reason for that!

 

Does a tube preamp with Class D amp count as Class D? 

As far as I can gather, "Class D" refers to the power amp rather than the preamp. So completely agree with @Merton.

 

No doubt someone will be along with a more in depth explanation of why I'm wrong.

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7 minutes ago, Skybone said:

As far as I can gather, "Class D" refers to the power amp rather than the preamp. So completely agree with @Merton.

 

No doubt someone will be along with a more in depth explanation of why I'm wrong.

You’re right.Class D is the power amp design; traditional solid state and valve heads tend to use class AB power amp topology.

 

Class D is more often than not linked with an SMPS (switch mode power supply) as opposed to the traditional power supply found in valve and class AB heads, and that’s actually where most of the weight saving comes from 🤓

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I settled on my Demeter (model details in signature) as the answer to this question but it’s not an especially practical solution for the OP considering price and scarcity.

 

Like the GB Streamliner which I owned immediately before that, it has a valve preamp.

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Alternatively just buy a valve amp. 
I recently picked an Ashdown Little B*stard from FB marketplace for just £220!
Looks and sounds fantastic. That’s cheaper than getting an Orange Bass Terror. 
Mine was a steal but £300 will probably get you one. Do it. You won’t regret it. 

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A 300 watt tube amp is large and very heavy. And has that unique sound. Many 300 watt Class D heads will fit in the pocket of a gig bag. Some class D heads also have tube preamps , but they are not quite the same thing. Some Class D heads have no tubes whatsoever but manage a somewhat tubey sound through manipulating various gain stages. Some say preamps with a tube rectifier have the most convincing tube sound. Those preamps are few , larger , and more expensive.

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16 minutes ago, msb said:

 Some say preamps with a tube rectifier have the most convincing tube sound.

To some extent that's correct. Part and parcel of tube sound is power supply sag. The reason why a tube pre doesn't give the same result as power tubes is that pre tubes don't draw enough current to give the same degree of power supply sag as power tubes. A rectifier tube will help, but still won't give the same result as tube rectification of a power tube voltage rail. The popular consensus is that Fender ruined their amps when they made the change from a rectifier tube to solid state diodes. From a technical standpoint SS diodes work better than tube, but technically better doesn't always sound better. Mesa and others addressed this with dual rectifier amps, allowing the user to choose either tube or SS rectifiers.

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Nice article , thankyou. I had been reading that tube rectifiers sound a bit warmer , and solid state rectifiers were a bit more defined. I have a tube pre with a tube rectifier but I’m no scientist. I just like how the overall thing responds. 

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