LSA Voyager GAN Amplifier

Ricevs,
My Rouge is pretty substantial. 23 lbs, decent casework.  Francesco wrote me and asked whether I wanted white or blue LED on lights, details about engraving of the round dial on the front.  He treated me as if I were ordering an expensive D'ag amp.  Rouge looks like a higher class company than the DIY'ers.  They have many different products using Pascal, Hypex, Anaview modules as well as IceEdge.  Thanks for recommending Rouge.

@rajugsw


If the LAS Voyager was an off the shelf module that was 'merely' in need of an input, I and presumably many others would not have been waiting 2 full years from it's initial intorduction

Actually, the Voyager and Peachtree are using off the shelf modules (the amp modules and power supply) that do not need a separate input stage. They are both plug and play boxes. There will be more companies following suit. LSA and Peachtree had very little to do with the development of these modules......they are end users.

The main reason GaN amps have taken so long to be available is.......you had to design your own amp board, like Merrill, Orchard, AGD and Class D audio did. There were no companies making and selling GaN based modules. Now there is. And these modules are really good!.....even without mods.

Here is the main problem with Class D.......it is complex
The input buffer on a class D amp has as much circuitry in it as a Coda 8 amp. And that is just the first input buffer. And these input buffers are usually $1 op amps.....not discrete stages.....this is true for AGD, Orchard, LSA, Peachtree, and Class D audio. I don’t know what is in the Merrill as they will not allow anyone to remove the cover.
So, you have an input stage that is not as pure as the whole Coda amp....then you add another op amp......and then maybe more and then the driver and then the output devices and then the coil on the output.....Wow! it is amazing that they sound good at all!!! And they do. Miracles do happen.

But there is no way there will ever be a class D amp that is truly state of the art until someone does every thing to the nth degree.....that means no op amps.....that means every part picked for sound.....this is what Boulder and Coda and Gryphon, etc. do. When you see these big companies make a class D amp.....the game will be over. Class A will truly be boat anchors...

So, is the new $3000 about to be released GaN amp from Wyred for Sound all built with discrete transistors and tweaked to the max? How about the new Mytek GaN amps at $6K and $20K? Will we see state of the art class D soon?

So, if the AGD amp has $1 op amps on its front end....how come it sounds so good? Because you have a listener/tweaker at its helm. He spent hundreds of hours tweaking the Mk II version. Please read the review on Enjoy the Music about it.

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0421/AGD_The_Audion_MkII_Review.htm

However, as long as he keeps those $1 op amps in there....it will never be state of the art. No doubt he is tinkering away as I speak.

All the new GaN amps are great for the money.....and modded they can be taken to new heights......but do not expect state of the art.....not yet.....soon....however, it probably won’t be cheap if everything is done to the nth degree........I would guess above $10K......and at first, maybe way out there.

So, now you know.

Have a great every moment......you deserve it.  You are beautiful.

But there is no way there will ever be a class D amp that is truly state of the art until someone does every thing to the nth degree

This is correct, but even more important for Class-D to be able to do to over take the best linear amps, is that they cannot come close to doubling their wattage for each halving of impedance from 8ohm to 4ohm to 2ohm for those speakers that are very hard to drive eg: Wilson Alexia

And the even bigger problem to get rid of, is the phase shift in the audio band that the output filter creates to rid the output of most of the switching frequency noise https://ibb.co/Bs1tJ7d . And the only way to do this is to take it all up higher x 3 (switching frequency and filter) to 1.5mhz or more instead of 600khz.

ONLY then, could it be called to be better, than or equal to, the very best liner amplification.

Cheers George

por favor repite eso para siempre

Do you think any other thoughts? Do you dream of this at night?

No, only when a class D amp sounds as good as the best class A amp
will it be as good.....no matter what its power rating or switching frequency is.

Theory is theory.....reality is what is real.  Listening tests let us know what is real..
not rantings on a forum.