What are the best GaN Amplifiers available today?
There have been a number of threads discussing the wonder of GaN and some of the individual amplifiers that have caught peoples attention, including those from AGD, Atma-Sphere, Peachtree, LSA, etc. Has anyone done a shootout against two or more GaN amps? If so, which did you prefer, and why? And on what speakers?
Also, of the one you preferred, do you prefer it over every other amplifier you’ve ever heard? If not, what non-GaN amp do you enjoy more?
@invalid No need to be so absolute. I’ve bought many items just because I had a chance and liked what I heard. I’ve also heard many things that sound uniquely good but don’t measure well. If you can’t hear something you have to go with whatever info is available In order to be able to make an informed decision. Otherwise it’s pure guesswork and the chance of expensive mistakes goes up.
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The first person in the world to hear a modded Nilai amp gave me a little feedback today. " I know I have a lot of break in to go on this one but so far am liking what I'm hearing (replacing a very nice tube amp; too hot in PHX for that right now)". The Nilai amp is the latest and best amplifier tech from Hypex.....measures very similar to Purifi (both mosfet amps....no Ganfets). It is available as a kit or assembled. Lots of great class D right now. The stock Nilai has terrible wires, output connectors and AC inlet, extra wires and switches and stuff it does not need.....I do other stuff too. You can see the pic of his modded Nilai amp on my site. I will be adding more pages this week for the different amps I mod. |
I am wondering what is meant by 'dynamics'. IME, most of the time when audiophiles talk about 'dynamics' they are really talking about higher ordered harmonic distortion. Dynamic contrast should come from the recording, not anything else.
@invalid FWIW Dept.: you're talking about measurements made 35-40 years ago or so. Just as any other field of technology, the measurement world has vastly improved. IME sometime in the 1990s, we crossed a threshold where we could finally measure a lot of stuff we were hearing that we could not measure prior. But many audiophiles are still making decisions based on how things were back before that!Imagine trying to surf the web on an Apple 2 of an IBM PC... The problem we have now is almost as bad: most people including those that make the measurements, fail to understand their significance WRT how the ear/brain system perceives sound.
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@mapman… “@invalid, …when I look at measurements, specs, or other objective information, I’m looking as much if not more for red flags ie clear problem areas as I am which measure best…”.
In this post I think you did an excellent job of rationally stating what an experienced audiophile with a bit of leaning towards measurements would do. Measurements are just one of many sources to learn more about a component, not by a long shot the only. There are things to be learned, but the bottom line is, what does it sound like. Your views are not remotely ASR like. |
