Just about any reasonable modern equipment is generally pretty good IMO. Obviously vinyl, cassette tape and so forth had serious audible (and measurable) issues, but most modern quality equipment with the notable exception of speakers sound pretty much the same, as long as the design team did good work.

Stuff I've enjoyed in the past - Hafler, B&K, Sony, Onkyo, Carver, Phase Linear, Pioneer, Outlaw (of course!), Akai, etc.

In the future I intend to try Anthem, Rotel, and a few more.

The amps you pointed to may also be fine, but the TriPath units (which I took time to dig into a bit) actually measure poorly, with levels of distortion and noise that are near the threshold of human audibility. As long as there are alternatives out there WITHOUT that level of defect I see no compelling reason to accept an inferior solution.

I LIKE the idea - that's why I looked into it. I think digital amps are the way of the future, I just question whether that future is here yet.

Charlie

1. DVD-A, CD.
2. Above
3. Rotel 1066, Outlaw.... many.

The Tripath amp specs @ 0.1% THD, not counting other noise and distortion. That is pretty poor by modern standards.


[This message has been edited by charlie (edited August 09, 2002).]