Unfortunately there's a common misconception in the audio world that class D means digital. That's not true. It's actually just the class that came after C. Just like B came after A.

When the engineers at Acurus set out to do anything, half measures are not in the vocabulary. Everybody loved our A Series amplifiers and their high fidelity. Not everybody's backs and biceps appreciated moving them and not everybody was able to sustain more than one of them on a typical household circuit. Efficiency was needed but we could not compromise fidelity.

The Class D architecture used in the Acurus M series amps (M8, M4, M8X and M4) is absolutely not digital. The incoming signal is never digitized (ones and zeros). There is not an analog to digital converter (ADC) in these products. Some competing products do operate in the digital domain. You'll see manufacturers touting something as direct digital or some other namesake. This amplifier is not using digital as a means to drive anything.

For Acurus, the incoming signal is sampled, generating a triangle waveform mapped from the analog waveform. This sample gives the amplifier points, (the tips at the top and bottom) to drive PWM (pulse width modulated) pulse. Because of the switching frequency of the amp, what you get at the output terminals when viewed on an oscilloscope is analogous to analog – which is a nice Dad pun.

In addition, all good amplifiers need a proper input section. We call that the front end. Some of the products out there in the marketplace simply take off the shelf module and run an RCA or XLR jack right into it.

Because you're trying to maintain a certain synergy between the output impedance of the stereo preamp or surround processor and the input impedance of the amplifier, a proper front end is not something you can skimp on. Our front end uses only the best components from Burr Brown / TI to ensure optimum gain structure, signal to noise and toneburst performance.

If bridging for more power is desired, signal to noise is still optimized as the gain structure is adjusted. Not only is the amp stable into <4 ohm loads bridged, this is actually its highest fidelity form as slew rate is doubled with no other ill effects

For whatever home theater projects you may have, Acurus has the amplification solution.

Class D amplifiers don’t HAVE to be digital