New Class D amplifiers

This Seoul, South Korea-based company claims that it is using a new variety of solid-state transistors, gallium nitride (GaN) FET transistors in place of the standard silicon ones, which for technical reasons are claimed to greatly improve the sound of traditional Class-D amplifiers, which suffer from time-delay problems associated with using silicon-based transistors.

A solution in search of a problem. The best performing class d amps on the market today do not use GaN fets.

Go Tube pre with a good class D GANFET amp and you’ll love what comes out.

 

If you like tubes. If you prefer to preserve the integrity of the input signal, I would avoid introducing tubes into the signal chain.

@kuribo: Then, how do you account for why gallium nitride (GaN) FET transistors are being touted as "all the rage" among afficionados of Class-D amplifiers these days (witness the Stereophile review of the HiFi Rose RA180)?

Could you please cite one or more examples of those class-D amplifiers which you say are the "best performing class d amps on the market," and if possible, describe what kinds of silicon-based devices and/or alternative technologies their manufacturers are using instead. Thank you!

@erictal4075  have seen Rose but wasn't aware it was Class D.  Thought they were streaming Don't really care for steampunk look.

@tommylion 

Thanks for the input. Somehow Google didn't return a hit. At $5500 the AGD Tempos are at the same price as the Atmasphere, and on an earlier post @mglik mentioned his experience with the more expensive Audions vs Atmas as being different flavor rather than better/worse. This might suggest that at the same price point the Atmas might be better performers - but this of course is just pure speculation on my part.

As more units hit the market, I'm looking forward to getting more opinions about the GaN amps that take digital in and get a flavor if this elegant solution can be sonically on par with much more expensive implementations.