It was inevitable that, sooner or later, Class D amplifiers should appear at MOS too. It was inevitable, as inevitable is technological progress. Every day that passes the world is more and more projected into energy conservation, into power consumption optimization, into efficiency increase. It's right! Absolutely right! We cannot deny a fact. However.... first of all we are very keen on music, true music, and unfortunately a Class D amplifier, although technologically advanced and electrically performing it may be, will never be able to provide the same experience of sound, voice and involvement as a Jurassic Class AB does. At least not yet! Will it overheat less? For sure! Will it consume less? Of course! Will it be more powerful? Very likely, but it will always and unconditionally be a cold and “heartless” object, a robot! We waited, wondering whether it might be worth to develope and realize something that was clearly against the main idea that has always been at the root of our work, since the very beginning. As a design engineer, I honestly have to admit that I have often thought to give up, completely demotivated by the fall of a thick fog that, slow but inexorable, shrouds a field, the field of high fidelity. Once it was the temple of the highest sound quality and rich in superlative electronics, able to move people and make the difference. These considerations are not to be intended as a regret, but a nostalgic and functional analysis of what has been and what will be. Today more than ever, technologically advanced countries such China (just to mention the most important) play the lord and master in the field of electronic devices. They have financial power, human labour resources and technical/logistic capabilities. In few words: they are war tanks. The belief of being able to compete on equal terms with this colossus is at least delirious, if not totally insane. However, we are Italian for better and for worse and we cannot stand the idea that someone else, just because more powerful, can stab us in the back. And it is in these situations that we are at our best! With this idea in my mind, dejection turned slowly into spur and wish to dare, even with the awareness to be less powerful. One thing was crystal clear: we couldn't put on the market a conventional Class D. Even though well constructed, it would be only cannon fodder when compared to the huge colossuses made in the Eastern countries. What were we supposed to do? This question has tormented me for months and has given me a large amount of headaches! Then, one day, as it happens when the best knocks at the door unexpectedly, there came the flash of inspiration! But who says that a Class D has to sound like a coffee pot? And if it sounded like a vacuum tube amplifier? Well, if one has to talk big then better to talk very big! Is it possible that such a banal question has never been tried to be answered? Am I a fool or is there something that has never been tried before and that could transform the concept of “digital” amplifier? I am overcome with doubts! Things being uncertain, I start to work on it maybe because I'm irresponsible or maybe because in the deep of my head I feel I can do it. I must admit that the first results are nothing but encouraging, but I won't give up. Deeply trusting in the Italian creativity (or maybe even more in the irresponsability) I opt for “rather irregular” technical choices (even wrong, someone would say) to get to a result that is not at all predictable. It's been like applying a “reverse psychology” to human beings, but electronic components are not human! Finally, to make a long story short, after more than six months of technical “accidents” we are able to listen to the first prototype of the amplifier that, with a good deal of right pride, we can consider the “landmark”, as for sound quality, of all mono amplifiers destined to low range frequencies. Whether you believe it or not this amplifier sounds like a vacuum tube amplifier, despite it drives a subwoofer! It's incredible! In the biginning we even thought that we had done something wrong! It's been worth believing in the project even more than realizing it! ONE 1000.1D is at present the only amplifier on the market that can (without doubt) be bestowed with the title Warm Digital Sound. At first we have been criticized, but I have to say we did expect that. It's typical of the human nature to distrust and/or denigrate the unknown. “It produces an excessive Total Harmonic Distortion”, they said. True! “It has a ridiculous Damping Factor”, they said. True as well! “A Class D that cannot drive loads under 2 Ohm it's rubbish”, they said. A matter of opinion, but it can be true. Then, they listened to it. And they listened to it, again and again. And nobody talked anymore. There is a moment in life when you understand that there's nothing better and more enjoyable than the expressions and puzzled faces of people that realize they have taken a beating. And you understand that (maybe) these moments are the spice of life! That's what lets you go on, day after day, with renewed enthusiasm. And you understand that, paradoxically, we are the ones to impose limits on ourselves. And you also understand that a Class D can sound like a vacuum tube amplifier! You may think this is a fairy tale, but if you doubt my words (and I hope you won't) trust your senses, try something you've never heard before! It's the ONE 1000.1D.

Filippo Kania
R&D dept.