Ok, just for tracking purposes, these are all the amps I’ve seen people list out:
- Orchard Audio Starkrimson Stereo Ultra (as well as their others)
- Peachtree GAN400 (as well as GAN1 and Carina)
- Atma-Sphere Class D
- LSA Voyager 350
- AGD Productions amps (Audion, Tempo, Solo, Duet, Gran Vivace)
- Technics SU-R1000 integrated
Are these pretty much all the highest regarded GaN amps out there or are we missing any from this list?
Since this thread has started, I’ve looked into a few amps. The fully-upgraded Starkrimson Ultra 2.0 seems appealing, as well as Atma-Sphere Class D monos and the AGD Solo monoblocks. I would love to be able to demo one or more of these against my reference electronics, which would be the $40K T+A A 3000 power amp with the T+A PS 3000 HV power supply. This combo has been very difficult for me to best with anything else, though I have found a few more affordable amps that simply have a completely different but almost equally as enjoyable presentation. The T+A stack is one of the most natural sounding amps I’ve ever heard with some wonderful bloom considering it is solid state. It has similar richness to a high powered, big tube SET amp I owned years back, but it outperformed in many other ways in that it isn’t rounded at the frequency extremes and can control just about any speaker out there regardless of load. I love this amp so much that T+A became the first brand I sought when I decided to start my dealership business.
More recently, I have been incredibly surprised with the Cambridge EDGE A integrated amplifier that I got for my floor in June. Its performance is incisive, yet still musical, and it does a wonderful job of presenting a deep, holographic stage. Over prolonged listening, it becomes more obvious that it doesn’t control speakers as well as the T+A stack. There is less bloom, and music at times can sound just a tad more clinical - but to many, it may still may be on the warm side of neutral. For $6500 including a built-in DAC, this unit is a sleeper that I could probably live with.
I’ve compared both these units to numerous other amps, though I haven’t had a ton of Class D amps in possession. The two I’ve played with are a Mivera PurePower SE which uses the ICEpower 1200AS2 board with quality parts and chassis, and the T+A A 200 amplifier, which is the perfect mate for the renowned T+A DAC 200. The ICEpower amp is as expected - incredible control at the frequency extremes with a slightly thin midrange and clinical to borderline fatiguing top end. And despite its power, the output gain doesn’t match some of my other amps. The T+A A 200 is a different beast for being Class D. Built around Purifi modules, the customizations result in the amp having a very organic, but somewhat forward presentation. This amp has more warmth and density to it than a Primaluna EVO 400 amplifier, but I wouldn’t go the distance of calling it colored. It is an incredibly linear amp, and my only wish is that it took better control of hard to drive speakers (T+A does make the M 200 monoblocks now) and that the amp does a better job with depth.
Oh, I did also own a custom Class D amplifier that ran on a very robust linear power supply made with Russian PIO caps, and it was good in my second system when I had it, but it wasn’t a match for other amps I owned at the time. I found out later that Class D amps and linear power supplies don’t really go hand in hand, for reasons I forget why.
I suppose the only way I will know whether one of the GaN amps out there can sway me from what I’ve heard already is to try a few. I’ll admit that the efficiency and control that Class D offers is quite appealing, but I haven’t found any other amps that combine the control and natural presentation of that of the T+A HV series electronics.
