Why Choose Class D for a Portable Amp?

[aerius]

I'd be willing to bet that a single guy doing cd player mods isn't doing more engineering than meitner or dcs...but you're welcome to think otherwise.

More engineering, no, better engineering, quite possible. If the one man op happens to be someone like Tim de Paravicini or John Atwood, it could well end up doing a better job than the big company. Not saying that APL does or doesn't since I don't know a thing about them.

[Dusty Chalk]

That's true but both have a vested interest in DSD (both are big in the pro sector) and neither can match the APL in engineering.

That's, like, your opinion, dude.

And having a vested interest doesn't necessarily mean ulterior motives -- it could be they're vested because they believe in the technology. And at that level, I suspect that to be the case.

[recstar24]

I believe Alex from APL used to work for Sony as an engineer. I am not sure what sector, and I cannot find the source currently that I read, but basically he is not an idiot, and does have some legitimate engineering experience. The forums are pretty much like Steve Hoffman's forums in that all the users swear they are god, so your unlikely to get an unbiased opinion there. The reoccuring thing I keep on reading about the APL stuff is that it is so detailed, it can actually border on sounding grainy and somewhat analytical.

[philodox]

I wonder how many people actually work for Meitner?

[spritzer]

He isn't actually alone as AKM and Esoteric work with him and let him in on information they wouldn't normally share. A case in point would be the engineers from AKM coming to the US to hear his new player...

Can you tell us a bit about the APL engineering? Because reading their forums, there isn't much technical info other than a whole lot of ass kissing (or audio masturbation).

It's basically the drive feeding a buffer where the data is slaved to a master clock and upsampled and fed through an array of AKM dacs. From there it goes to a transformer coupled output stage so it's only a transformer and the tube in the signalpath. All linear psu with R-core transformers and point to point wired with soft silver wire. The transformers are amorphous core Lundahl. Even though the PCB's are SMD they are still hand soldered as it sounds better then a wave machine.

It's true about the ass kissing but thats a nasty side effect of this and applies to most manufacturers.

I would personally never buy dCS as it is very expensive for what you are getting and EMM is a horrible company as they used Audiogon to manipulate the used market for EMM products.

[PFKMan23]

EMM is a horrible company as they used Audiogon to manipulate the used market for EMM products.

Care to elaborate more on this point?

[spritzer]

Care to elaborate more on this point?

It was my understanding that Audiogon refused people to advertise their CDSA and Signature setups after they made a deal with Emm Labs. There was a thread about it on AA with sellers posting that their ads weren't accepted if they contained any EMM gear. There was always a very healthy used EMM market but it has completely vanished.

Edit: Found one:

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/shady/messages/3410.html

and another:

http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/t.mpl?forum=general&m=488196&highlight=audiogon+emm