What are the best GaN Amplifiers available today?

Technics SE R1 plus its SU-R1 digital front end.....someone A/Bed it with the Su R1000 and said it was noticeably better.  It has giant linear power supply.  The first GaN amp available and maybe still the best?  This baby uses GaNs and switches at 1.5 meg.

https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/technics-r1-reference-system/

You have the Merrill GaN amps.....not much noise from them lately.

Java hifi in New Zealand

https://www.javahifi.com/home

Linear power supplies are fine with class D amps......Atmasphere uses linear power supplies.

Modified Purifi and Hypex amps are great too....and they use mosfets on the output.

If you buy Atma-Spehere class D mono blocks, do yourself a favor: bin the stock power cables and purchase 2 Shunyata Venom V10 NR power cables. You can thank me later. More/better bass. Speakers disappear easier, improved vocals.
“Cool Blue Reason” from the band “Cake” is a trip. The intro spins around my room and now goes behind my head. Awesomeness!

Thanks guys. I’d love to be able to demo the Atma-Sphere monos before. Not sure if I mentioned on this thread, but I’ve owned Ralph’s MA-1 and S-30 OTLs in the past and both were quite good. He’s only about 30-35 min from me, so I’ll try to ping him and see what might be possible.

@ricevs In your experience, given your mods, have you found GaN amps to be more accessible to mod vs other ICEpower, Hypex or Purifi modules? In listing the mods you apply, the one that seems to be done on the power supplies or boards themselves are the cap replacements, and everything else seems to be wiring and chassis mount parts, is that correct?

I found out later that Class D amps and linear power supplies don’t really go hand in hand, for reasons I forget why.

@blisshifi 

There isn't a reason. The kind of power supply makes no difference if its properly designed. We use a linear supply in our amp.

All power supplies have a sound. "Properly designed" is not a static thing. The more you know (by listening tests) the more you know that changing one cap or diode or whatever on a power supply makes a serious difference in sound.....as I stated before, how you mount a linear power transformer makes a sonic difference. One advantage of linear power supplies is that they are simple (especially, if unregulated). So there is less listening tests to do. Switching supplies are lighter and take less space....they also run at higher frequencies so there is no 60 hz ripple to filter but they need high frequency filtering....hence, usually an inductor is series with the output.

I learned a lot about how parts effect sound in the early 80s when designing a power supply for the Sota turntable.....this was a 30 volt pre-regualtor. There was already a 12 volt regulator inside the turntable and all it was doing was spinning a belt with a motor. But every single thing I did to this 30V pre-regualor changed the sound.....even the power cord.......what was really interesting was all 4 power transformers I tried had completely different sounds. What a crazy game this is. So, what is properly designed? Is it something you do with theory or do you have to listen like crazy?.......only to find out later in time there is even a better way to get better sound......it never ends.

The best amps to mod are the ones that sound the best stock. I modded the latest IcePower IceEdge ones.....but would not recommend it or any other IcePower modules......they are not bad....just not as good as: the VTV amps using the Purifi modules or latest Hypex NCX500 modules, the VTV D300 GaN amp, the new Nilai amps, the Orchard amps, the LSA Voyager and all the Peachtree GaN amps. All these sound great stock......and much better modified. Of course, the Atmasphere amps would sound much better modded but usually if someone spends that kind of money they are afraid of mods.....plus they would not be manufacturer approved.

The two main types of mods I do are parts replacement and also parts removal (most gear has parts that are not needed that mess up the sound....for instance, all the hardware on a toroidal transformer........or extra switches, connectors, and wire, etc. not needed). I also damp things, add mass and also can add modified Wima bypass caps on the power supply....etc.