Kara-Moon Forum

My most recent discovery in studio monitors,are the M-Audio DSM1's,which are DSP reference monitors,which are geared towards the high end digital realm-particularly for professional,all-digital applications.
Upon first viewing these monitors on M-Audio's website,I became curious to thier design,but for me personally,I became put off by the fact that they're a class D amplifier design,mainly because in my particular set up,they are not only very expensive,but completely unecessary for my needs & while I have never heard class D monitors before,I still question the advantage of such a design,being that I can't imagine a better pair of monitors other than my Adam A7's for nearfield use in a small studio(in any recording medium)?

Class D amps provide exceptional power efficiency,which requires smaller heat sinks,as well as a smaller power supply & with today's technology,they are supposedly optimized for the digital medium,as they offer a superior conversion process-a prudent feature,one that is ideally suited for a pc based set up(or so it is said).
Class D amps were originally designed to control motors(exclusively for small dc motors),so to achieve good audio quality in a monitor,it requires upgrades in electronics & a special design configuration to pull it off.
This makes class D monitors very expensive & seemingly unecessary-particularly so,since the new Event Opals do not follow this design....very peculiar stuff,indeed!

As far as I am aware,most monitor amplifiers are-at least in the intermediate
range,comprised of class A/B amplifiers, & as such,these monitors offer the benefits of each class,thereby creating a synergy,canceling out the ill-effects of each,stand-alone class of amp.
The DSM1's are the latest of a growing number of class D amps out there,so perhaps it is for good reason in certain applications.

Drivers: 6.5",anodized aluminum cones--1" Teteron fabric neodymium tweeter

Amplifiers: 180 watt class D(100 watt LF,80 watt HF)

Frequency response: 49Hz--27kHz

Inputs: XLR,TRS,SPIDF & AES

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/StudiophileDSM1.html


-Thom

I've had some sort of interest in class D amplifiers since the middle 1970s when power transistors first became 'fast' enough for this to be practical. In those days the critical problem was damping. The very nature of the beast means it is impossible to have a true low impedance drive to the speaker voice coils, and this has to be achieved by feedback trickery. As a result I gave up at that time and turned my interests elsewhere.

Obviously understanding and techniques will have developed over the years, but it would be interesting to know how they've resolved this issue, especially if they have found a way to do this entirely within the digital domain.

It's also interesting that they claim to address the phase discrepancies inherent in single-enclosure speakers (bass frequencies arriving at the ear sooner than high frequencies).
If the D-class amp and phase correction are effectively incorporated, these would be a good choice when it comes time to upgrade.