I love class D amps...

Hilbert

...and I haven't even heard one yet.

UPS guy just sprinted up my drive holding in one arm the box containing (I suppose, haven't opened it yet) a Wyred 4 Sound ST 500.

Meanwhile, I'm wrestling to put 75 pound Emo xpa-5 back in its 15 pound box. Wrestling an alligator would probably be worse but at the moment it doesn't feel that way.

So I don't care what the W4S sounds like, I'm through with heavy amps .

Hilbert

Not so bad after all--the trick, as perhaps everyone already knows, is to turn the amp upside down and fit the box over it. Now all I need is some tape.

thuffman03

Heavy amps are hard to work with when you want to move them. I helped my friend box up a 90lb tube CJ that he sold and was shipping to Canada.

Now my Sunfires and Carver TFM amps are not too bad. The Sunfire 300~2 is about 45lbs and my Carver TFM 55 was 40lbs shipping weight. Guess it is about 35lbs.

One thing I have noticed about Emotiva is that their amps are heavy!

Sherardp

Welcome to the ICEClub, I'm using D-Sonic Magnum 1000S on my RTi12s and they love it.

madmax

Super heavy amps are a pain. I had some carver pro amps, 1200wpc, and they were less than 10 pounds. I thought they were pretty cool!
madmax

olilugo

This issue was the number one reason why I went with sunfire, having to deal with 80lb and up was no an option for me...

Gaara

Been there done that not fun. Messed up my back packing up my 141lb Cinenova Grande alone, replaced it with 2 7lb monoblocks. Gotta love it, almost 2x the power at 10% of the weight.

Be sure to let us know your impressions when you give em a listen.

Hilbert

Lots more bass than I'm accustomed to. Lots more detail---I heard a lot of small things on A Hard Day's Night I'd never heard before, despite having listened to the record roughly a bazillion times. Damping factor of 2000 may be at work here?

Very quiet background. People here have criticized Emo amps as noisy; maybe there's something to it.

Sounds a bit---not sure how to say it---tinny? harsh? Just a bit. Listening at the moment to Beeth. piano conerto 4, and neither the piano nor strings are as sweet as they ought to be. Luckily both Underwood Wally and the W4S manual warned me ST 500 requires extensive break-in (200+ hours) so I'm not distressed by this. Yet.

That's enough to begin with --- exhausted after death struggle with giant amp. Must say I'm looking forward now to hearing the amp mellow out during the next few months.

Gaara, if somebody gave me a 140 pound amp, I believe I'd just cut holes in the sides of the box to hook it up. Maybe let it double as a coffee table.

cnh

Those new Rotel Class D amps look nice...5 channels and about 10 pds? What do you guys think about the highs on D's...that's the issue that has kept them from being an amp of choice in the past but has been addressed in the last few years?

As you know people used to complain about quantization effects at high volumes and at the upper end of the sound spectrum?

I have, among other things, a cheap second generation Pannie Class D AVR and I can't hear any problem up high....but the speakers in that secondary set up may not be capable of 'revealing' errors up there?

cnh

cfrizz

olilugo wrote: »

This issue was the number one reason why I went with sunfire, having to deal with 80lb and up was no an option for me...

It's also the reason why I went with Sunfire. I simply can't manage the weight of the other amps.

It's why I'm going to have to go with another brand of speakers when I ready to upgrade. I can't handle the weight of the LSI 15's.

sandworms

cfrizz wrote: »

It's also the reason why I went with Sunfire. I simply can't manage the weight of the other amps.

It's why I'm going to have to go with another brand of speakers when I ready to upgrade. I can't handle the weight of the LSI 15's.

if you need some one to take those off your hands, i'll do all the heavy lifting!!

Hilbert

Got some more listening in, and the new amp is definitely a keeper.

Compared to the XPA-5, ST 500 plays louder without seeming loud. It sounds less like amplified music, and more like just music, if that makes any sense.
The tinniness I complained of last night was maybe just fatigue; it sounds fine today, although I won't mind if it breaks in and sound better .

The big drawback, naturally, is that I want to rush out and upgrade all the other components. Gotta give the money capacitor a few months to recharge.

And now it's time to demonstrate once again to the damn turkeys (stupid birds just won't learn) that we and not they occupy the top of the food chain. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

SolidSqual

I owned the ST-500 and ST-250. The XPA-2 from Emo was not nearly as quiet or natural. The changes you are hearing from the St-500 are very common. D-Class amps are meant to be left on all the time. What you are hearing is the amp charging up, leveling out, and breaking in. You are in for a very organic experience. Emo is a bargain, but W4S real high end gear.

Gaara

Hilbert wrote: »

Gaara, if somebody gave me a 140 pound amp, I believe I'd just cut holes in the sides of the box to hook it up. Maybe let it double as a coffee table.

My dealer had people do that with the crate it came in. Massive wooden crate with heavy duty handles, apparently a good coffee table / conversation piece.

Hilbert wrote: »

Compared to the XPA-5, ST 500 plays louder without seeming loud. It sounds less like amplified music, and more like just music, if that makes any sense.
The tinniness I complained of last night was maybe just fatigue; it sounds fine today, although I won't mind if it breaks in and sound better .

I had the same impressions when first listening to icepower, they have a sense of power without lossing detail which is pretty impressive. I have to say the biggest wow factor for me was the bass, it seemed deeper and drastically faster, it was the first time I really understood attack/decay when it came to drums.

Enjoy.

markmarc

With the right speakers class D amps can sound pretty amazing. The rub is that a smaller field of speakers work well with them. One choice of an excellent match is the Emerald Physics speakers. A poor choice is Mark & Daniel speakers.

It's all about synergy.

Hilbert

I agree about attack and decay---cymbals really sound like cymbals, for the first time in my system. Hadn't realized what I was missing. And the bass, which seemed very pronounced on the first bad night, has now subsided and blends in nicely.

There are so many speakers out there that it might be rather an advantage to have an amp which instantly shrinks the field. Assuming you could get reliable info about which match and which don't.

I'm really liking this amp, if you can't tell. Anybody have any thoughts about the improvement that would result from replacing an Emo USP-1 preamp with the W4S STP (a few months down the road, or sooner if I get desperate and knock off a gas station). Would it be Wow, Wow, or WOW?

That's , :cool:, or ?