I see those speakers (very nice looking btw!) will take 30-750W. I just swapped out a 750W amp with a 200W amp. Big difference.
Class D amplification for me anyway represents one of the greatest advances in audio with massive potential. I can’t remember anything that has excited me so much as to it’s implications. I believe it will mean a lot to many in the future.
I've been using two of Mytek's AMP in bridged mode for a couple of years now and I'm pleased with them. Compared with class A/B amps I've used the AMPs can sound a tad grey in the higher mids and less impressive in the very low bass, but it's a very honest sound that I miss every time I try something else. They don't try to impress the listener, they just sound "right", dynamically and tonally. The AMP+ has just been released and the selling point seems to be better performance in the areas I just mentioned. 3000 USD per unit is not cheap, but fortunately they offer owners of the AMP to upgrade their units to AMP+ specification for 500 USD per unit (the difference in retail price between the old AMP and new AMP+).
There's a lot to say in favor of integration. A few points against, as well, having to do with service, upgrading just the weakest link, and so on. But I do believe that using line-level crossovers and DSP is a great way forward. Regarding the Meadowlark homepage, I seem to be missing a list of dealers and/or a price list. Is any of that there?
The Meadowlark website is very poorly designed IMO. No "products" tab or pictures of specific speakers. One must click on each bird or birds name image to be taken to that speaker.
... but you need to understand that the birds are the products ... really weird and not intuitive at all
... and not atypical of other small audio firms, who offer a menu of products by line (Aero line, Tarot line, Karo line, Carrot line) with no indication of which is better, or even worst, just "Aero," "Tarot", "Karo", and "Carrot", with no indication whether they are products or product lines or what they do or mean. If you are looking for their midrange power amp (e.g.), you have to suss it out for yourself. How can any successful company miss how un-helpful such a site is?
Jeezuz, that website stinks out loud. Obviously the Big Boss' idiot nephew needed a payday. I do this kind of work for a living. Or did. This is the kind of cheap crap that priced me out. Everybody is an Artist now. Except they're not. They deserve whatever ridicule that follows that weird little "website." Speakers are purty, though...
Oh you are absolutely correct! And not just audio, in ANY field. Why did I pay a bunch more money for a candy apple red washer/dryer? Because I look at them every single day, and it is way more cheerful that off-white. As for affecting sound quality perception, I have never seen any experimental data about that, however I would bet you are correct about that as well. Hmmm...actually there IS some anecdotal data, where someone switched between an ugly amp and a pretty/beefy amp, and the beefy amp "sounded better"-until the organizer revealed the ugly amp had been playing BOTH times. I have read a similar story about cables. Expectation bias is very powerful, hence the desire of objectivists to want double blind testing. The part I don't get is why those who say they hear differences are so very very reluctant to put it to the test. You'll get people saying you can't tell anything by switching quickly...OK, take your time. You'll get people saying you have to live with something a long time...OK but (a) how do you know any improvement is not just your ear/brain adapting? (b) how can you then compare at all, since sonic memory is notoriously fallible? I don't believe all amps sound the same, and yet we have Denon vs Parts Express, round 1 (NOT scientifically double blind...but still, differences not shockingly obvious at low volume).
Sure, but I would like to believe you don't have to compromise LOOKS in order to get good sound. Which is not exactly the opposite thing. And it depends on the use case: amps in a closet? Black box, who cares. Amp that you-AND others in the household-are staring at every day? Get something nice to look at! After all, why not? Hey maybe I will start a company making audio facades. Beefy looking front panels you glue onto the plain black boxes, kinda like those Old West storefronts two stories high with the building behind only one story. Or, way back in the day and in a sort of reverse, when I took apart my factory car radio nose and glued it back together. I pulled the radio out of the car, put in a wooden shelf, stuck a fancy aftermarket radio, then put the boring factory nose over it to hide the expensive radio...
I agree. As an aside: I’ve always found when switching cables (not very often as I’m extremely happy with mine) it took at least about 4 days or so for the new cable sound to “lock in” but that might just be in my head
I do believe that the future will be active speakers driven by integral class D amps. I have some speakers with on board amplification and although not class D in this instance have shown me the value of active speaker amplification tailored specifically for the cabinet and drivers. I also believe in the future of Class D to drive even the best of passive speakers.
I think that if the power is enough for the speaker, the room acoustics it's way more important than the amplifier "sound quality". Psychoacoustic exists and not only by the eyes, as head_unit says. I know about a Spanish audiophile circle dedicated to analyze this stuff and the results are totally shocking. They have a double blind method and made many tests ... using Google translate surely you'll understand. Matrix-Hifi: Pruebas ciegas If you need some clarification on spanish, i can help.
I think it is a great site with lots of interesting and useful info and I believe Pat is at the forefront of this integration of technologies: Class D amps and DSP integrated into the speakers themselves(and remote controllable via ipad/phone), thus doing away with passive speaker crossovers, analog interconnects, and speaker cables, 3 things that audiophiles have bickered over since their inception and (along with their analog cable interfaces) do nothing but degrade the original (digital) signal/recording. As I mentioned earlier, there is little doubt in my mind how this will play out. And one can still play their records (or cassettes, RTR, and other analog sources) with little/no ill effect IMHO as ADC technology is robust these days, just like DAC technology. Even the Apogee AD1000 ADC that is a quarter century old still sounds darn nice!
It's a great concept and the Meadowlark speakers look very interesting. But getting "audiophiles" to buy into Class D amplification and then having speakers with them built in will be a tough sell IMO. I'm all in as far as Class D amplification but would have to think long and hard about speakers with built in amps. It totally removes the option of changing out speakers and or amps if one wants to experiment.
Someone with traditional speakers (i.e. those containing passive crossovers, the bypassing of which is a huge benefit of DSP) could biamp or triamp using DSP for crossovers/high pass/low pass filters (and room tuning) in conjunction with a Class D amp. That should give the main benefits of his setups, though you would still have your analog speaker cables. So when listening to digital music, at least, you should feel a little unpurist.
From what I see, the market share of active and powered speakers is doing nothing but growing. There are many more of them available than even a couple of years ago. But I'm with you in that I want the flexibility that separates bring to the audio table.
I was really impressed with some of the earlier Meadowlark speakers and actually considered buying a pair at one time. They were really good quality/sounding speakers and I do believe with dedicated amplification integration they might be something special. Would be nice to hear.
Thanks for the link. I think this company could make waves with their new philosophy. They have proven their speaker design capabilities in the past. Be nice when some reviews show up.
Still listening, haven't heard a class D amp I liked. The compactness may make it exceptable for home theatre.
