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?

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Actually, @atmasphere I was just reading the other A’Gon thread on your amps and came across a post on why certain upgrades aren’t made largely because they won’t be audible due to the high amount of feedback you run through the amps. If that’s the primary reason, no further need to elaborate, but if you do have suggestions on upgrades you do offer or consider offering, let us know.

@oceanandmountains  I have a Peachtree GaN1 driving Spendor S3/5R2 speakers in a small room (12'x15').  I love to listed to vocals at low volume - think Melody Gardot - at night with the lights low and a snifter of scotch.  Actually, to my surprise, the GaN1 with the Spendors is magic at low volumes.  Very precise, but the opposite of fatiguing.  In fact, they draw me into the music; attention is very pleasantly rewarded.  Best of luck.

How do these various GaN amplifiers perform at low volume (ideally, when paired with speakers known for low volume performance, e.g. horns, BBC monitors, etc).

I can't think of a reason why they wouldn't work just fine. For starters class D amps tend to be low noise. I run mine on speakers that are 98dB and they work fine at low levels.

I can’t think of a reason why they wouldn’t work just fine. For starters class D amps tend to be low noise. I run mine on speakers that are 98dB and they work fine at low levels.

My findings concur with that. All my Class D amps are dead quiet, perhaps all teh quietest I have ever owned in 50 years, from my largest and most costly in teh Cambridge Evo 150 (Hypex Ncore) to the smallest in my little $80 Fosi integrated (TI chip) and everything in between including a somewhat older Bel Canto c5i and the 4 in my Vanatoo Transparent One active speakers. Even the oldest and most costly BEl Canto ref1000m 500w/ch monoblocks the Evo replaced were always dead quiet and all excellent at low volumes, though perhaps just a tad rolled off in the high end. These are all with typical average not high efficiency speakers which typically are more sensitive to any noise in the signal.