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Stock Voyager GaN amp (350/600) Contrasted with my EVS1200 (600/1200)

The Voyager (V) I received is well broken in, and as the title says, it is stock. An upgraded version will come later.


I let the V warm up for ~ 24 hours while I listened to my beloved EVS 1200 (~$2300) playing a wide variety of Redbook CDs; The Judds, Chris Issak Heart Shaped World, Leonard Cohen remastered collection, Willie Nelson Across the Borderline, the Eagles Hell Freezes Over, and Jennifer Nettles Playing with Fire (love the music, but the mastering has a few ear bleed cuts- or does it???). I capped the session off with Roger Waters Amused to Death SACD, a huge, occasionally very dynamic, and intentionally phasey recording. While I enjoyed the hell out this listening session, but afixed in my mind was reading others reporting on their not fully broken in V amps frequently mentioning detail/clarity, the music via the EVS 1200 wasn't as focused as I felt it should, but have accepted for 2 years, as it easily outperformed my PS Audio M700s (MSRP $4000), FYI, their M1200s are based on the same IceEdge AS1200 modules as my EVS 1200, but untouched. They simply added their own tube input stage (MSRP $7000), and Audio Alchemys DPA-1 ($2000), wish I could have tried the monos ($4000), but...


Could  the lack of focus be elsewhere, like the Wire World Electra 7 Power Conditioning cord ($240), connected to my Audio Alchemy DDP-1 + PS 5, which is IMO, my weakest PC, all the others are $700+, or my $150 Pangea XL coax cable? How would the V stack up?  Im thinking it can't be THAT much better, and what about the huge power disparity in my ~ 26 x 38 X 12 lively room with lots of glass and open beam ceilings, which adds up to brightness?


I connected the V, but didn't want to start with any of the same discs, just in case the V needed to see some signal before being ready for the comparison, so I chose Getz/Gilberto Jobim and Astrud Gilberto SACD as a nice way to ease into the Voyager. I haven't listened to this disc in months, so no recent memory to taint hearing it now. Did I say 'ease'. Silly me.


I'll cut to the chase hear/here, from the first note, it was obvious that this is a special amp, but at $3500 MSRP? OMG: What a steal!!! The focus reminds me of how much sharper and with greater depth of field pictures taken with Leica camera lens are, compared to all other cameras and lenses. GaNs magic is the equivalent of Tesla EV motor speed- immediate: The V grabbed me from the first note.


More  to come after I go through the Redbook CDs that I started with, but I already know it's a moot point. And wilder, still, LSA has already made a few tweaks, like the internal wiring for an additional $175.


Ric Schultz was right when he said expensive amps will be boat anchors
tweak1
viber6
2,448 posts
 
ricevs,
Let me try to answer your observations--

"Neutrality can be all over the place because no one does straight wire bypass tests on amplifiers. Some call an amp neutral when it has no natural warmth........what is natural warmth? Just your guess. I think you can have an amp that has natural warmth and super detail. The question is.....does the Benchmark have natural warmth.....or does it lack natural warmth? Again as you say......the degree of warmth."

Words are poor approximations of what we hear.  I want as much transparency as I can get.  Can we objectify "transparency?"  YES--do the bypass test with and without the line stage between the source and power amp.  Assuming no impedance mismatches,  the totally transparent line stage will have no effect on the sound compared to source direct to power amp.  With all of the line stages and preamps I have tried over the years, when the line stage was added, there was a loss of transparency/detail and INCREASE IN WARMTH.  That is the best definition of warmth I can come up with, and you know what I am talking about.  On a more subtle level, you have found that different wires exhibit this phenomenon.  I'll speculate that the shorter length of any wire, the better and more transparent it is.  Eliminating contact points as from your binding post alternative no doubt increases transparency, and I will speculate that it also decreases warmth.  See the next paragraph.

However, NATURAL warmth has nothing to do with audio systems, but it is a characteristic of some live unamplified instruments and voices in a certain acoustical setting.  The warmth in audio systems is NOT natural; it is just plain euphonic distortion with loss of information.  Some have attributed this to even order 2nd or 4th harmonic distortion in tubes and tubelike SS electronics.  Also see my latest 2 posts on Jay's thread on this subject.


grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,468 posts
 
Warmth is not the same as muscularity and meat on the bones body missing in some Class D amps as well as others. Some talked about here. This body is part of proper tone and found in the wild. 
rsf507
2,313 posts
 
+1 @grannyring  exactly
csmgolf
887 posts
 
+2 @grannyring 
I have never seen anyone as desperate to prove themselves right as viber6. He has over 1500 posts on Jay's amplifier thread, all saying pretty much the same thing. It is truly sad to observe. Now he is preaching it on this thread. Live music is a physical, visceral, experience. Or as you put it, it has muscularity and meat on the bones when heard live. I have heard plenty of acoustic instruments live. Inside, outside, it doesn't really matter. Pretty much all of them are visceral.  If a system creates a sound that is thin and thread bare without visceral impact, which someone clearly loves, I have zero interest. It doesn't sound like real, live music to me.
rc22
133 posts
 
Muscularity, meat on the bones…Density?  Audiophiliac on YT did an episode a while ago addressing what, in his view,  is needed for hifi to go that last bit toward the ultimate goal of sounding like live (presumably un-amplified) music.  Aka, lifelike.  He posited: Density.

Maybe Density, Muscularity and Meat on the bones are describing the same thing?  I dunno.  The last two seem like the same—anatomically, at least.  Lol.

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