LSA Voyager GAN Amplifier

He fixed the XLR

Nice of him.

Chris be nice.

@jaymark , thank you for indulging me with what speaker you are using.

I don't know the Spatials other than from the web, so I can't comment too much,

I know the Revels, and was able to find an impedance curve for them. Their impedance drops below 4 ohms for most of their higher frequency performance. With the LSA, one would expect a droop/shelving of the high frequencies starting about 5KHZ, and continuing to about 1.5-2db down (roughly) at 20KHz.

If you still have pretty good high frequency hearing, and your room is "lively" i.e. not a lot of absorption/acoustic treatments, that could make the amplifier both sound less harsh to you, and by taking the emphasis off the high, give better weight to the bass. As well, though our high frequency hearing is not as good, it can present a masking function for lower frequencies, so it could, just by making this "less busy" at least to you, give a subjective impression of better midrange.

Compared to a traditional tube amplifier, based on the measurements I saw, the LSA will have far far less intermodulation distortion, and this could also make the midrange come alive for you in comparison.

I am curious what your impression are with the Spatial Audio X5s. There is no impedance data, but it is listed as 8 ohms, so I would expect it to roll off less in the highs compared to the Revel with this amp.

From a purely "state of the art" perspective, the LSA is not near the top, though I think some of the specifications, like IMD, are pretty good. I can see though, in your particular case, and compared to other products you used, why this amplifier could be the best you have experienced. I am happy that you came across it.

Did he ask?

I wish it were that simple.....that a frequency response measurement means only one thing. However......since everything makes a difference, it is not that simple. Years ago I had a speaker I had designed that had a resistor to pad the tweeter. I was using one of those junk sand resistors. When I tried to use metal film resistors there it sounded too bright and harsh. As I tweaked my system to lower its distortion I could then put the metal film resistor in and enjoy its better transparency without the brightness or harshness (that were actually coming from other parts of my system before and now were eliminated).

If I were to install Silver WBT binding posts, Rhodium plated Furutech AC socket and silver plated OFC wire in Teflon on an LSA amp you would say it is a bright sounding amp.....no matter what the load of the speaker.......because those components have that signature compared to straight wire. And this signature cannot be measured. Same with all audio wires. Some sound dull, some sound neutral and some sound bright (as well as other characteristics......mostly which CANNOT be measured). This is what I am constantly stating.....this game is really infinitely complicated. And to use just measurements is really ignorant.

Do I like the fact that the LSA shows more roll off at lower impedance loads?....no, I don’t.....nor would I design an amp that way for mass production. However, there is a person who might chime in here who has a modded LSA and before that had my modded IceEdge amp which has no roll off using lower impedances. He is using Thiel 3.7 speakers that have very low impedance and he greatly prefers the sound of the LSA amp. Do his speakers sound more rolled off with the LSA so that is why he likes it? This is what a measurement only person would say. Maybe he will chime in with his hearing impressions.

This game is an art. You must match your gear to get the sound you like. It is not an exact science like drag racing where there are just five factors: horsepower, weight, drag, traction and gearing. You can design a dragster on a computer and then put it together and it will perform down the quarter mile exactly as predicted. Audio is infinitely more crazy. Every single thing changes the sound and most things CANNOT me measured that change the sound. You must listen to really know what is real in audio.

Have a beautiful day, my sweet ones.