GaN amps: Peachtree or LSA Voyager?

My audio experience is quiet extensive, going back some 30 years before I was a partner in Audio Tweakers in the early 2000s.

@tweak1 I don’t have a dog in this fight but if I can offer some advice? I’ve found personally that testifying to however many years of experience I have really amounts to nothing. That isn’t how you develop cred. Also, in this particular case @kuribo has a point that isn’t being addressed by the attacks on him.

Its a simple fact that if you are a designer, you have to have measurements to confirm the authenticity of your work. I imagine a lot of people expect that our OTLs are a pretty tweaky amp, after all they have only one gain stage, are fully balanced and differential, are all-triode, class A(2) with a direct-coupled output and no feedback. That’s a mouthful and I expect that many people imagine us sculpting the sound (voicing) with certain exotic components, special wire and so on.

But we don’t do that- we rely on the measurements; if the amp fails that there is no reason to listen to it. We don’t tweak it for sound, we tweak it (if that is even the right expression) for measurable performance. More often than not, that likely involves changing a resistor value to fix an operating point of a tube...

Producing our class D amp would have been impossible without the measurements and of course the underlying math!

So for @ricevs to really address kuribo’s arguments, producing the measurable improvement in performance is how to do it. Failing that, using the argument that the ear hears more than we can measure (which is a false argument now, though probably true 30 years ago; like those that strive in so many different fields we audiophiles tend to live our lives based on tradition and what we learned long ago rather than using up-to-date knowledge) really isn’t going to wash! Why? If it sounds ’better’, why does it do so? Is it lower in higher ordered harmonic distortion? Perhaps less phase shift? Not knowing the answer is really a terrible thing!

Put another way, if you cause your hand to move and actually make the measurements that will answer that question (and one valid excuse might be that the test equipment needed to do so is a bit expensive) you should be able to sort out why it sounds ’better’, and now you have a concrete argument for the skeptics.

As an example some decades ago I found that the power cord could have a dramatic effect on one of our amplifiers. That really bothered me since I didn’t know why. Since it affect the sound of the amp that provided an access- so I measured the power and distortion based on the one variable of two alternate power cords, one ordinary one and one that was more ’exotic’ (edit: rather than measure the cords themselves...). A difference in power, distortion and also output impedance were all measurable. The difference in power was not slight either! It turns out that like all other electronic parts, power cords obey Ohm’s Law and the voltage drop across them was the culprit. Yet how often have we seen dissent over power cords on this forum alone??

I hope you see where this goes- there are a lot of ’objectivists’ that claim a power cord can’t possibly make a difference- but I can now challenge them because I’ve made the measurements and they haven’t (which is a bit ironic...)!

As an owner of a GAN amp I will say that everyone has different experiences and the sound we look for can be different.

Here is another review on a GAN amp.

The new Rose integrated is also coming out with 4 GAN amps inside.

@atmasphere 

While I admire all you've done in this industry, I never needed to see measurements (nor would I understand them anyway) to validate, or not, my ability to hear whether something improves my listening experience, be they power cords/interconnects, going from rca kit to all dif balanced systems, dedicated lines, isolation/vibration devices, connection treatments, and in each of these examples  some/many are snake oil and others revelations

I recently acquired the LSA Voyager amp. I tend to prefer tube amps but my current Line Magnetic LM518 gets pretty hot so I like to use something else in the summer. I also wanted to try something different with my system and was curious to hear a GaN FET amp. My current system is a Denafrips Terminator DAC --> Audio GD HE XLR1 tube pre --> amp --> Cube Nenuphar Mini speakers. The speakers are single driver crossover-less that tend to prefer low damped, no negative feedback designs. They sound amazing with the LM518 and I also have a 1.5 wpc 45 tube amp that also sounds amazing. I really don't need a lot of power but I've curious to try the GaN FET. I also have some standmount speakers that aren't so efficient so I figured I could use this amp with those as well.

I received the amp a couple of weeks ago and briefly hooked it up to make sure it was working. My impressions are only after listening for a couple of hours, but so far I am impressed. I've listened to class D before and I always felt like I was hearing all of the pieces of the song, but not the music. Just never felt engaged. This amp had me engaged. It was dead quiet, detailed, and dynamic. I will spend more time listening to it soon. I was having trouble with my dual REL subs and realized the connection method to a class D amp is different for the subs, so I went back to the LM518 until I'm ready to hook the subs up using the Voyager. Once I get more time I'll post my thoughts, but so far this is the best class D I've heard.

Also, I haven't heard the Peachtree but I am a fan of their products. The Nova was my first 2-channel integrated and my "gateway drug" into this hobby. I've had 3 of their integrateds and even have their Deepblue speaker. The only reason I didn't try their amp is I found a great deal on a used Voyager. I heard the amp modules are pretty much the same in the Peachtree and Voyager. Not saying they're the same but I'm guessing the amps sound pretty similar. IMO the Peachtree looks better and if I had my amp out in the open I'd prefer that amp, but mine's in a cabinet so it didn't matter to me.

@atmasphere 

I see and understand your point. As a designer/manufacturer you have to be involved with measurement. And the quality of your work speaks for itself.

Tweak1's point is also a good one. As a consumer with little to no background in electronics, most of the displayed specs for any piece of gear are simply beyond my understanding. Yes, I could undertake to educate myself, but I simply have no interest in that aspect of it. So while it might put me at a disadvantage in purchasing new gear, I gather whatever info I can from various sources (I'm the OP) but ultimately it is my ears/perception of the piece in my system that will decide if it stays. 

Rick can speak for himself, but I suspect he falls somewhere in the middle. I doubt very much if he has access to the kind of testing equipment you use.