Anybody else waiting for GaN and Purify to have a baby?

@mikepowellaudio

By the way, my apology if you are one of my customers and I dont recognize your AudioGon Moniker.

i am

Its interesting also jjss49 how the "Big Bucks" is the entry amp and best value in the AGD line, the Audion. Its a pair of monobloc amps with audio grade power cords in a pelican flight case for only $7500. and this amp competes with some of the greatest designs the globe has to offer , so that’s not Big Bucks comparatively,

my purchase of the set of agd’s was the single largest dollar spend on a single item i have made in my 35 years playing with audio gear (not by much, but still...) ... so it is ’big bucks’ to me... i am hardly short on money or choices of where to spend it, it is just that i’ve spent a lifetime earning my money, so i try to spend it wisely (and otherwise support charities and causes i care about)

while i certainly have a lot of hifi equipment i have fun playing with, for me, spending 30k on an amp is grossly unwise, and unnecessary, to achieve outstanding sound - i've been at this since my late teens in college, and sometimes, i am prepared to open my wallet to see what is on offer as the market for gear progresses and innovates (and as the hype often ensues)

as with other things in life that has gotten me to this point, i trust my own ability to decide, select, compare and assess

I don't think that is a good guess. Ease of heatsinking? Have you seen the tiny heatsinks that people use on the GaN's.

Look how tiny the heatsinks are on this new Orchard 250 watt into 8 ohm module are:

https://orchardaudio.com/starkrimson-ultra-module

picture is at bottom of opening scene.....just scroll through them....you will see.

The GaNs are much faster than the mosfet Bruno uses. Here is what Bruno and Lars of Purifi say:

https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/merrill/2/

Yes, I saw that. And I read that bit, but its really not in conflict with what I mentioned and I agree with it.  At 500KHz the extra speed of the GaNFET just isn't a thing- sure you can run a tiny bit less deadtime. But Bruno is running a **ton** of loop feedback (the Purifi module's patents are all about how he does that) so the distortion he's getting really isn't affected by the small difference in deadtime he might get with GaNFETs. Its not cost either since that's not a thing anymore, or wasn't a year ago anyway. That is why I think its something else- and the body diode would be a good example of that. If I were him I don't think I'd be trying to educate anyone on what that's all about in an interview :)

@jjss49

I really appreciate your taking the plunge to compare what a low cost GAN amp sounds like versus a much more pricey one. GAN seems to be the new exciting development in amplifiers and I'm definitely interested in hearing someone so experienced and knowledgable like yourself help the rest of us better understand what these new circuits can do at various price points.  Is it the GAN tech or is it the implementation?  Guess its likely both.

It is terrific that someone like you will try and report back on real amps, whereas others here just post and post more about what they think or believe without any real basis.

mini 5 received today, plugged into system, at first it sounded pretty chalky, but the sound is taking shape after about an hour in... will let it burn in for 24 h and revisit

btw - system is bluesound node rca dig out into doge 7 tube dac into XXX amp into Spendor SP100 R2 - streaming qobuz hires - might swap in chord m scaler/hugo tt2 at some point for max transparency, removing any tube beautification

planning compare this baby gan with recently acquired agd audion, and longtime reference amps hegel h20, ss arc 100.2 and tubed arc ref75 running kt120’s, all accept balanced-in direct from dac, w/o linestage

its a 15 day trial so i won’t get into swapping speakers or sources much, just keep those relatively constant

I wouldn't worry about it any competently built purifi has distortion and noise way below human hearing for that matter so does hypex and benchmark amps. I have tried different purifi, hypex, pascal and other class D amps and I have never heard any difference which stands to reason as speaker distortion is considerably worse.