Holy Grail of D Class Amp

Baldy…decisions, decisions and more decisions… :innocent:

Been there done did dat :smile:

Best wishes

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As a previous owner of PSA M700s…I will say that is a great amp! The 1200s I hear are a nice step up…another one to throw in the ring are the new IV series amps from Legacy Audio. I have an IV8 running sides, rears and surrounds in my media room along with a IV2 running the midrange on my Legacy Valors. Great amps and match the internal amps on the Valors and in my Element center channel…we are in a great age of Class D!

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I am no expert on this subject. Something I have learned though is in picking the correct amp, it should be the one that pairs best with the speakers you have. Does it really matter what class it is?

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@Cutlr7 I don’t suppose you have any experience with the M1200s and can comment about the differences between them and the Legacy Audio IV amps, do you?

If not, how do they compare with the M700s?

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Welcome, @msimanyi !

Welcome!
There are some good threads on this forum comparing the M700 to M1200.
I haven’t seen any threads regarding the Legacy Audio IV amps.

I’ve got an acquaintance here in Greenville that’s using them to power Legacy Valor’s and he loves them. They replaced Esoteric power amps in his setup. I assume there still being produced by ATI for them.

I haven’t been around here in a while but this drives my Cornwall’s just fine. No flea bag 2W SET Triode types wimpy amplifiers need apply.

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Unless something has changed since the review has been published, the Legacy amps use bone stock M1200 modules. Legacy’s contribution is solely the fancy casework and heat sinking. I own both an amp utilizing a bone stock M1200 module and PSA M1200 amps. I seriously doubt the Legacy is as accomplished an amplifier as the PSA M1200s are.

The Dagogo review is an interesting read. Mention is made of the PS Audio M1200 amps and perspective about the ongoing discussion over whether GaN is next great audio innovation.

https://www.dagogo.com/legacy-audio-v4-ultra-multi-channel-amplifier-review/

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Thanks everybody. I appreciate tubes, and the tube input on the M1200s is actually what’s attracting me to those vs the M700s. (Well, that and the other inherent improvements.). The Legacy product is interesting for its multi-channel support, but I have enough room in my wiring closet for multiple amps.

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How long in Greenville? My dad’s family is scattered between Greer and Salem. He’s in Keowee Key.

We bought the second house there in July of 2020. Our daughter (our youngest), Son-in-Law and first Grandchild live there. It will likely be our permanent town eventually. We almost bought a house in Greer but the over rapid growth in the area was bothersome to me.

Did you come from Michigan/Indiana border by chance?

No, Tallahassee, Florida my whole life. My wife is from Harrisburg, Pa. area and came to Grad school at FSU and never left. My Dad’s family moved to Florida from Clayton, Ga. which is about 80 miles from Greer. So kind of going back to the general area my Dad came from.

I was curious. I purchased my amps a couple of years back off Audiogon from a J Dawkins who lived in Michigan just north Indianapolis, PSA M700’s.

I live north of Baltimore. My dad was born in Greenville. His Grandfather was the Sheriff of Greenville County at the time. His dad moved to Baltimore during WWII, worked for the DOD. Cost of living is much better in SC, so when he retired my parents moved to Keowee Key.

Maybe someday.

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They’re about 35 miles from me as I’m on the NW side of Greenville County just Northwest of Furman University. At the edge of where it becomes Travelers Rest. We actually looked at property in Six Mile about 8 miles from them. The Boss didn’t want to live that far away from the Grandson whose in Taylors. Because of all the new corporations moving into the area plus the continued expansions of BMW, Michelin, Amazon and Ryobi the housing prices are through the roof with no end in sight as the Commissions are starting to put a clamp on all of the Urban Sprawl into former Agricultural areas.

I was gifted some very impressive sounding Class D amps. I’d love to play them for one person in particular and hopefully his head would explode.

These particular amps have very extensive power supplies and a class A front end driving the Class D portion. I loved them and listened happily for hours on end. My current amps are always in class A mode but so what? They are less powerful than the class D amps I previously used but they seem nice. I never had any issues with heat or heavy power use with the Class D amps. They were powered on 24/7. I think they use 15 watts at idle. The Class A amp gets shut down each night. It uses considerably more power and heats the room nicely in winter. In summer it’s no issue.

There are some very fine class D amps out there that are affordable and useful when power and heat are a concern. I have my class D amps on an extended, perhaps permanent loan to a friend of mine and he is very pleased with them.

The new designs keep offering more and more options and fortunately the prices seem to keep moving down. The new class A amp I have on order is going to change things dramatically and probably consume more power and be warmer temp wise. And now I have to get two of them. It would be nice if they caused headaches for that special someone though.

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I’m not sure where the cutoff is for phase information our ears pick up, but it’s this very type of subliminal bat hearing that makes a certain range of ultrasonics actually somewhat relevant - in music’s transients though. This why I wouldn’t purchase speakers with a pesky frequency response that falls below 30kHz!

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I haven’t compared the M1200 to the Legacy IV amps directly but I am confident the IVs will sound great :slight_smile: as will the M1200s! With that said, my main speakers use the same amp modules in them and they sound absolutely amazing. Happy Listening!

I am wondering when the Greta Thurnburg environmental crowd finds out what a horrible person you are for wasting all that power and energy for pretty class A sounds. I suggest you plant some trees to offset your audio carbon footprint:)

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