Sony CLASS D AMP in 2003?

[beerandmusic]

Can someone tell me, does this receiver have a class D amplifier?

It refers to "other amps (a/b)", so are they infering this is a class d?  It does say digital amp and "s master pro".

 

https://docs.sony.com/release/STRDA3000ES_twp.pdf

 

Whatever it is, it sounds awesome...possibly as good as any amp i have heard, and it was made over 10 years ago....i also read that sony made the first external dac in 1985?

[esldude]

Pretty much tells you in the document it is a PWM amp.  They are turning on and off the output transistors at a high rate and modulating them to create the output after it is low pass filtered. 

 

Sony and Philips made many first things digital in the commercial sense.  Whether they had the first consumer external DAC or not I don't know, but obviously they had the ability to make them.

 

Not sure why any of this is surprising other than you heard the amp and thought it good even though it was "just a Sony". 

[One and a half]

I own this amp, currently not in use. When idling, the power dissipated is quite high and runs uncomfortably warm to hot. 

Under high power, its easy to exhaust the steam, and needs a better psu.

The speakers tend to do what they like, rather than the amp providing correct control.

the internal DACs are coax, limited to 96/24 and they are very pedestrian and far better models standalone are available today.

Will the OP get over a fixation with discovered old amps that sound great for a week then find something else again only to repeat glory.

 

Try a 2nd hand  Accuphase integrated amp, or another macintosh, perhaps a vintage large Marantz amp from the 1970's, Sansui.... there are great amps out there, cheesy AVRs aren't it.

[Audio]

Ingenious volume control.  No signal go through the volume control.  The volume knob control the voltage of the power supply going into the output switching transistor.

 

(Audio)

[Fokus]

Lyngdorf have a similar volume control.

 

BTW, Sony already had a switching amp in the early 80s.

[beerandmusic]

On 8/14/2017 at 9:23 PM, esldude said:

Pretty much tells you in the document it is a PWM amp.  They are turning on and off the output transistors at a high rate and modulating them to create the output after it is low pass filtered. 

 

Sony and Philips made many first things digital in the commercial sense.  Whether they had the first consumer external DAC or not I don't know, but obviously they had the ability to make them.

 

Not sure why any of this is surprising other than you heard the amp and thought it good even though it was "just a Sony". 

I have liked many sony products and have stated so many times in the forums....the reason it got my interest was more about it being class D...i just thought class D were relatively new, or just gaining more interest recently.  It is the 2nd time i have heard class D amps (the first time i heard a few at a show), and i have liked they way they all sounded...but the class d's at the show were like $2K+, and i picked this up for next to nothing, and it too sounds amazing.

[beerandmusic]

On 8/14/2017 at 11:53 PM, One and a half said:

I own this amp, currently not in use. When idling, the power dissipated is quite high and runs uncomfortably warm to hot. 

Under high power, its easy to exhaust the steam, and needs a better psu.

The speakers tend to do what they like, rather than the amp providing correct control.

the internal DACs are coax, limited to 96/24 and they are very pedestrian and far better models standalone are available today.

Will the OP get over a fixation with discovered old amps that sound great for a week then find something else again only to repeat glory.

 

Try a 2nd hand  Accuphase integrated amp, or another macintosh, perhaps a vintage large Marantz amp from the 1970's, Sansui.... there are great amps out there, cheesy AVRs aren't it.

I have tried several vintage amps that i liked now...carver, krell, threshold....as far as the sony, i have done more research since i wrote that message and it seems many people that have had the s master pro technology swear by them.  Some suggest the 7100ES was one of the best at the time....it converted everything to DSD.   To me it sounds great anyway...to each their own i guess.  I just love to buy and sell old hardware, especially ones that I find that I think so great and share....it's a great score for someone looking to spend under $200...jmo.