F
Fife
Junior Audioholic
Anyone with opinions on digital receivers. I know HK has a line of them out. Will they soon become the superior technology?
"Let our rigorous testing and reviews be your guidelines to A/V equipment – not marketing slogans"
WorkerBee
Junior Audioholic
Don't know much about the superior part but I've read good things about them. I think they look great are a little smaller, reasonably lightweight and don't give off lot's of heat like some others. I am anxious to see a #3005 or #4005 
D
dohanc
Junior Audioholic
I'm not always with the latest audio marketing lingo so excuse me for asking what the hell is a digital receiver?
The only way I am going to agree with it being called a digital receiver is if its decoding digital satellite or digital radio from the air!!!
The only way I am going to agree with it being called a digital receiver is if its decoding digital satellite or digital radio from the air!!!
R
Ross
Junior Audioholic
The term "digital" is used to describe portions of the amp section within the receiver itself. There is a lot of garbled marketing dribble out there, but this is an actual term in the hifi world.
Personally, if the signal is to be converted back into an analog wave form for the speakers to see, what is the big deal? The speakers never actually see a digital signal. The dust hasn't settled on this one, but even in the end I don't foresee a definitive choice between the technologies...
best,
Ross
Personally, if the signal is to be converted back into an analog wave form for the speakers to see, what is the big deal? The speakers never actually see a digital signal. The dust hasn't settled on this one, but even in the end I don't foresee a definitive choice between the technologies...
best,
Ross
Rob Babcock
Moderator
The techology is called PWM; basically a digital signal is "transposed" to Pulse Width Modulation with no feedback. Essentially the speaker is driven by pulses of power, not a continuous wave. The inertia of the drive is sufficient that the cone operates as if it was driven by any normal amp. But in a sense, the speaker is really the DAC, here.
"Digital" amps are extremely efficient, turning 80%-95% of input power into output power. Since very little is lost as heat, they typically run much cooler than A or A/B amps. And the processors are fairly cheap, although obviously the companies who've made their living selling boat anchor A/B amps churn out very expensive Class "T" and Class "D" amps.
Digital amps can be made very small, allowing you to put high quality amps into places you normally couldn't (flat panel monitors, clock radios, very small cell phones, etc). Low power consumpion is a big plus for these devices. It also allows fairly powerful amps to run on batteries, freeing you of some AC related noise problems.
"Digital" amps are extremely efficient, turning 80%-95% of input power into output power. Since very little is lost as heat, they typically run much cooler than A or A/B amps. And the processors are fairly cheap, although obviously the companies who've made their living selling boat anchor A/B amps churn out very expensive Class "T" and Class "D" amps.
Digital amps can be made very small, allowing you to put high quality amps into places you normally couldn't (flat panel monitors, clock radios, very small cell phones, etc). Low power consumpion is a big plus for these devices. It also allows fairly powerful amps to run on batteries, freeing you of some AC related noise problems.
D
dohanc
Junior Audioholic
While I am not sure how many Class D amps (what you call Digital Amps) are actually on the hi-fi market, they are extremely common. There biggest limitation is a very high internal switching frequency to produce high frequencies. If they can switch high enough to generate 20kHz then I would expect to see them coming on the market as I don't believe there component cost is much different. As for audio quality - I'll let the "audiophiles" handle that.
The other trend in the proaudio community was switching power supplies that basically operate on a similiar PWM principal. Every receiver I look into has a large bulky transformer. Switching power supplies of considerable size are however are quite expensive. Any receivers using these?
The other trend in the proaudio community was switching power supplies that basically operate on a similiar PWM principal. Every receiver I look into has a large bulky transformer. Switching power supplies of considerable size are however are quite expensive. Any receivers using these?
crashguy
Audioholic
Last article I read, was written by David Ranada (sp?) I believe in Sound and Vision Mag. He said the technology was intriguing, but the fidelity was not up to par with conventional designs at this stage. I'm sure future improvements will change this, but at this point, if you want the "best" sound quality, conventional designs have it.
The "digital" amps are most common in powered subs where overall compactness and power vs. size are more important than pure sound quality.
The "digital" amps are most common in powered subs where overall compactness and power vs. size are more important than pure sound quality.
Rob Babcock
Moderator
How old was the story, Crashguy? There are some digital amps out there that have recieved universal raves from the audio press. Bel Canto, Spectron & Jeff Rowland all make "digital" amps that are considered SOTA in sound quality.
WorkerBee
Junior Audioholic
CIAudio sells a 100 watt class D mono block amp......Man, would that ever make my speakers sing. Not sure what class they are but Outlaw has some 200 watt monos and Musical Fidelity has some 250 watt monos too.
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crashguy
Audioholic
Wasn't really recent....I don't recall exactly. I recall there being a photo of a $5 bill with a tiny amp placed on it that covered about 1/3 of the bill. The caption under it said that the amp was rated at 500w.Rob Babcock said:
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