LSA Voyager GAN Amplifier

I'll chime in here with a long post (and I hate long posts).  At one point starting over 20 years back for about a 6 year period I had a friend who worked in a high end audio store and during that time, I did most of the set-ups and installs with him (to get them done quicker and we could either go back to the store while it was closed and do comparisons that most would not be able to do or head out for beer and appetizers).  I heard many things which I set-up in different rooms and with different electronics, including things which I owned.  I've heard things I've owned (both electronics and speakers) that sounded better and worse (I'd say more worse since I had the benefit of the experience in positioning and setting up things).  I heard a pair of speakers that I owned once that sounded so bad in the roof I couldn't stand to be in there.  I've also heard amplifiers I've owned set-up with other things that just didn't sound as good.  So the point is to evaluate something, there are different ways of using those things as the same components measure the same (and some of the 2-channel systems 20+ years back had over $150,000 of stuff in it at retail. And by the way, there were very expensive amplifiers that on occasion had something that was not soldered correctly.  A sample of one or two of anything is not very scientific to come to the conclusion it sucks (and one of the amplifiers were sold in monoblocks at $20k retail).

I do own a one third octave RTA (Audio Control) for many years,  I also have the Audio Tools App with the Dayton Audio IMM-6 mic and REW on PCs and a Dayton Audio UMM-6 mic.  My philosphy is to mitigate the bad room issues (via treatments and placement) and not have the room look like a recording studio since I have to live in it.  In a perfect world (and with more funds and anyone is free to contribute towards my goal😀) would be to have two more rooms, one optimized for 2-channel and one for HT.

Many moons back Mark Waldrep of AIX showed up at a Capital Audiofest I attended.  I bought a Blu-Ray with hi-rez audio content and since it was quiet when I went, I got almost a 20 minute spiel on DSD measurements and the audible noise.  I politely listened and since I like his recordings all I had to say was that as a consumer I have no control as to what a record label chooses to release in SACD or DVD-A and can only buy what's available.  I didn't have the heart to tell him that the Meitner MA-1 DAC I had at the time upsamples everything to 2 times DSD (no user adjustments are possible) and pushed all the measurements he was referring to outside of the range where my dog couldn't hear it.  The point being that an amplifier or any other thing in the listening chain needs to be considered, which brings me to the point of my system and how it is used and that everyone using the LSA may not get identical results (and some of course may find high frequencies better or worse in their systems in their rooms).

I'd also like to say that I've had several others over my house who would agree that how I'm using the equipment I have sounds best in my set-up.  I use a Lumin U1 music server which reads files from my NAS in another room.  The U1 is connectoed to my EMM Labs DAC 2X (Version 2) via a USB cable (and I'm not going to go into those details as this thread already has cases of cans of worms)  and has Leedh (you can Google it - the post is long enough without it) volume processing built into it.  The DAC 2X gets output into my Modwright LS 36.5DM preamp and that goes into the LSA amp.

The DAC 2X upsamples everything (no user controls) to 8 times DSD.  When the Leedh volume processing is used, it can't do DSD volume control in the digital domain so single rate or double rate DSD files show up on the Lumin App as 352.8kHz and then the DAC upsamples that to 8 times DSD.  So that's as simple as I can make it. 

If moved the LSA amp to mysecondary back-up audio system (which I don't intend to do), I'd be listening to a Sherbourn preamp, a small fanless PC running JRiver (also for fun I have an Oppo 103D, which also can read files from the NAS hooked into a modded Carver C-9 Sonic Hologram generator via analog in and outs going into the preamp) going into a Teac UD-503 DAC. I have Selah Audio SA-2s (stand mount 2 way with a Fountek ribbon tweeter) and a Rel Strata III sub for speakers (along with the EVS 1200 amp.  The room is a smallish bedroom (I do have it treated) and with different equipment and the room, I might hear different things in the high frequencies with the EVS 1200 amp vs. the LSA amp than I hear in the main system.  Both amps would measure the same before and after I swapped them between rooms.  That does not mean I would hear identical differences in high frequencies in each room or any thing else.

One of the songs I used in my amp comparisons is 'Fistful of Swoon' by Vandaveer.  I've seen them live over a half dozen times (at my favorite music venue which closed over 4 years ago - the Iota Club and Cafe in Arlington, VA) and heard them do the song (just acoustic guitar live) at least a few times.  I've owned 5 amps (3 class Ds and 2 Class A/ABs) during the time I've had the recording.  I can tell you that the spacing between Mark Charles Heidinger and Rose Guerin on the soundstage was the most realistic on the LSA (it was uncanny).  I've also heard the cut on many other systems both people I know where I've brought it over or at an audio show (although of course I'm not as familiar with those as my own system) and I've not heard it in the same way (of course at audio shows the really expensive systems are usually in larger rooms with more people and often they don't have the time to do requests the way a smaller room would with a dozen or so seats and I'd imagine it would be better on those megabuck systems).

I have heard of those researchers and read much of what they did.  Again....none of them proved by double blind testing that electronics (or passive parts or execution) sound different because of distortion measurements.   Electronics practically all measure flat in frequency response.  Even with frequency response:  Have you ever had a 20 band equalizer with a 20K setting and moved it down -2db?  Do you think you can hear that?  Most of us here do not hear above 14K.  Of course, if you did 1K we would hear that quite a bit.  I am sure that different kinds of measured distortion are audible....like more odd harmonics or whatever.  However, there has never been a double blind test that shows this.....or any other test on distorion measurements....please find one.  Until they do these tests.....it is all just the subjective opinion of the person doing the change that we here about.  Nelson Pass says he hears a difference.  I believe him.  However, he has no proof. 

By the way, Nelson Pass told me that he believes that "What I do works, but he has no interest in it."  He likes playing with ciruits and transistors.  He does not want to go down the rabbit hole of infinite tweaking.  This was a response from him....after I told him I could come to his factory and help him tweak his components.  This tweak game is time consuming.  He makes plenty of money making products the way he does and is very happy.  No problem.....we all have different desires.

Speakers are another story.....the frequency response, polar patterns, waterfall plots, impulse response, time alignment and distortion....all all quite gross and audible....and easily noticed on blind studies.  We are talking electronics here.  Please show me the study that shows how distortion numbers correlate to sound.  

Since this has gone into so many tangents...here's another one

Jaymark: how does the X5 midrange sound?

I'm into OB too, although DIY, and have the same Beyma AMT and wonder how those Deltalite 2512 mids sound and your experience with potential beaming from a 12" mid. Love the high sensitivity midranges. Never heard a 12" though (have 8").

Cheers!

@ricevs 

 Electronics practically all measure flat in frequency response.  Even with frequency response:  Have you ever had a 20 band equalizer with a 20K setting and moved it down -2db?  Do you think you can hear that?  Most of us here do not hear above 14K.  Of course, if you did 1K we would hear that quite a bit. 

Your statement above shows that you have spent 0 effort trying to understand how the LSA amp would behave with a real load, and especially with the ops speakers. Instead you insist on grasping onto things like solder or connectors, or ... and no they have not wasted time on a double blind test, because that is just what it would be, a waste. I think if you search long and hard, though you may find one on capacitors in a cross-over, but the result will not be to your liking.

I have explained, in excruciating detail, how electronics, in this specific case, will absolutely effect listening impressions. I have brought you to the water, but I cannot make you drink.

I believe Nelson Pass was just being polite. Anything he has put down to paper (i.e. on the record) has been backed up by actual data, i.e. he tackled the potential for frequency response variance with cables. He has never, to my knowledge, given credence to "tweaks", but he understands his customer base, so he knows not to put them down either. It would not be good for business.

In terms of how distortion contributes to perceptions of sound, this is just every day common knowledge now (or should be if you are claiming to be an amp expert) including what we perceive as pleasant, unpleasant, how it may impact loudness impression, masking functions, etc. As always Google.

@ricevs you make @kuribo blood boil YOU, YOU CHARLATAN.