GaN amplifier from GaN themselves limited supply!!!

Surely the name evaluation board tells you something about the intent and the purpose.

It's not being sold as a kit to which you only need to add a case.

Ummm someone’s not impressed.😴

It would help if more information was available. One thing seems apparent: While it might make 200 watts into 8 ohms it will not be able to do that for any length of time as there appears to be no provision for a heatsink (although it may be possible to heatsink it). Without a heatsink at 200 watts the output devices will simply overheat and fail- probably within a few seconds but maybe a minute or two.


IOW this kit really is for evaluation and for that I'm sure its just fine. But if I were to be building up a class D amp from parts I bought on the web and that amp were for personal use as a nice stereo this is not what I would get. One important thing missing is a bit of information about how the amp works. Is it zero feedback? Self oscillating? Stuff like that can have a huge effect on how it performs and sounds!

WOW!!!!
Didn’t take long, for the two that have the most to loose with their Class-D offering, to start rubbishing this GaN amplifier, as they do in other threads too.
But they are so far out, they are in another universe.


This is for others that are interested in this GaN by GaN amp

Here is a test/measurement made by Amirm of Audio Science Review, one of the most highly respected sites for the truth on anything audio related.

This GaN amp complete was loaned to them by an owner for test/measurement and "it had it’s variable feedback set at low" because the owner had it that way, trouble is a couple of measurements won’t be as good as they could have been Amrim says that in the tests.

"Performance here is above average compared to median of all amps I have tested (which lands around 78 dB SINAD). But it not stellar. Speaking with the designer, his focus was to keep the level of feedback low to show the advantage of the GaN transistors not needing much. He was not aiming to produce the best performance possible. Personally I wish he had targeted that given that is what we like to see here.
All in all it was superb in tests and measurements all aspects that matter."

As for heat there’s virtually none.

" Again, no heatsink due to high efficiency.s for heat sinking it runs so cool there’s no need for it. Practical MOSFETs take time to switch and during that time, they generate losses in the form of heat and limit how fast you can switch them. GaN transistors aim to solve this problem as these few slides from GaN systems show:"

Distortion at high power for a Class-D is incredible

"We see that the distortion is still under control instead of shooting through the roof.!!"

"I don’t think I have ever tested a switching amplifier with this level of frequency independence. Even Class AB linear amps struggle to produce such an absolutely clean response. Amplifiers with high amount of feedback run out of gain at higher frequencies and hence distort more. Not this design."

Even techs with follow up comments on the thread were very impressed.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/gan-systems-amplifier-eval-board-measurem...

As for me getting one, all here know I only have Class-D preference for one, the Panasonic SE-R1 with it’s 1.5mhz switching frequency, even this GaN by GaN I started here, won’t shift my liner amps, yet!!

Cheers George