Are those class D amplifiers used? I am in doubt about the longevity of class D amps. Again, I am not saying I know my position is anything more than a musing not fact. And if the amps in the M33 are actually class D, that may be an exception and as you know the exception does not prove the rule. Perhaps I am as wrong as wrong can be, totally acknowledge that, but I would have to really be confident to be putting down 1o and 15 thousand dollars for main system actives. I actually would be open to it once I was extremely confident in the longevity, but support moving forward is important.
I agree.
Not sure there were any class-D amps 20 years ago, certainly not in general use at a reasonable power level. Meridian made their own amps, so it will be all old fashioned class A/B amp and linear power supply.
It is true that the one thing we don't know about modern high performance Class-D and smps are longevity. In a world where something 5 years old is considered obsolete and no longer gets software updates etc and one is expected to buy a new one this may be the new normal.
My iMac computer I use(d) for streaming is slow and inconvenient purely because it is either no longer supported or even deliberately hobbled to make users thing they need a new one. This makes me angry because when I was first writing software (40 years ago mind you) 128k of RAM was a lot and the processors were little 8-bit affairs but I still had programmes which ran in "real-time" fast enough to safely run a wind tunnel. The iMac is millions of times bigger and faster in principle but not in practice.
So personally, after being an early adopter of file based music almost 20 years ago, I ain't buying any "modern" electronics for domestic use any more. I don't consider the benefits worth the pain.
I think it is far more likely that a modern active monitor will become obsolete many years before it stops good, so your term of 15 years, from now, is probably an underestimate in reality, but probably because of it having software, firmware of chip-sets which are no longer supported.
I
may buy some KH420 or KH310 Neumann active monitors, the rest - no chance.