I am with ricevs. As I do with many pieces and doing it for over 50 years, I finally got around to chassis damping my LSA GAN 350, including changing out the stock rubber feet. What I hear now vs stock, are cleaner, faster and more agile sounding transients, more air around the instruments, greater articulation with the "playing" of the instruments, and greater dynamic contrasts. The rear panel alone was very "alive and ringy", and now it is dead silent. The power cord, interconnect cables and speaker cables all have a quieter environment to contend with. Everything makes a difference in what I hear. Could care less if it is measurable. GANFETS, to my ears and in my system, are the most enjoyable class D I have heard, and in the last 18 months, I have heard many. My best, MrD.
Could Class D really be that good?
I've heard statements praising modern class D amplifiers all the time but was sort of hesitant to try. Lately, one particular model caught my eye, the Fosi V3, which costs sub $100 but is praised for having refined sound like class A/B. To fulfill my curiosity, I quickly ordered one and tried it with my Burchardt S400II and Wharfedale Linton speakers. Basically, this is a neutral sounding amp but, to my surprise, the sound is clean, open, airy, with full mids, wide soundstage, good imaging/separation, with nearly null traces of the edginess, dryness, or lean sound that traditional class D amplifiers have. The background is just as quiet as my current systems. The core is the TPA 3255 chip from TI and comes with a 32v, 5A power block, which is supposed to deliver approximately 65 watts per channel (into 8 ohms). It drives the S400II/Linton without any hesitation, as well as my 130-watt-per-channel high-current Parasound A23. Very impressive.
Measurement is not everything. However, according to the lab test results, when operated under 10-60 watts, the distortion level (THD) is below 0.003%, better than a lot of high-end (price) gears. I am going to build around it for my fourth system with upgraded op-amp and LPS. I believe it will outperform my current mid-end (price) amplifiers.
I know, I know, quite a few Audiogoners' systems are above $100k, and mentioning this kind of little giant that costs a fraction could be rather embarrassing. But I thought this is just like gold digging with a lot of surprises and fun. Don't you think?
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@jl35 They are pretty much the same based on my recollection after seeing several reviews and demos. I decided on v3 primarily because of its pre-out feature, so I could do bi-amping later on with other class A amp. |
For those contemplating the question of this thread, you aren't the only ones: https://pmamagazine.org/is-class-d-amplification-now-better-than-class-a-b-and-class-a/
Yes. Not worth worrying about on weekends. |
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