GaN-based Class D power amps

Just a clarification... There is no GaN-based technology in the Pascal modules used in Rowland amps.

Regards, Guido

George, please do not contaminate this perfectly good thread dedicated to GaN technology with your irrelevant paperholic conspiracy theories... I invite you to move post material that have nothing to do with GaN to one of the other class D threads.... Best would be the Future Of Amplification thread. 

Regards, G.

Celander is correct,

* Rowland does not make use of GaN technology in any of its products.

* The Rowland Continuum S2 integrated sports original Pascal M-Pro2 modules. Rowland does not make use of counterfits.

G.

George, please have the decency, or at least the common sense not to put words in my mouth.

I am not in the habit of insinuating. I make my statements deliberately narrowly scoped. I speak only about what I know, and make no speculations about products and/or companies with which I have little familiarity. I urge you to do the same.

Please give this entire matter a rest... Let's try to stay on topic, folks.

G.

Some of us have had a more nuanced experience with Class D than TEO_Audio.... I have been listening to class D since 2006.... I have heard class D purgatory, hell, and class D heaven since then. Have been experiencing musical nirvana in my own system with class D amps since 2008.

I have also experienced for several days one quite promising GaN-based prototype amp in my system, which, because it was incomplete nd not well broken in, was still displaying some minor audible artifacts in the treble region... Yet, was in spite of this, as I said... Very promising.

So, my ever cautious inclination is to say that GaN may be, if not the only way to create excellence with class D, at least one of the emerging technologies with high potential.

As more GaN amps are released in the next few years, we might have a better idea if the potential for generating nirvana is inherent to GaN transistors, or if GaN technology per se has instead an average chance to be inside superior amps.

Guido

++++ Please keep irrelevant dental care topics out of here.

G.

Hello Celander, the Vivace's home page does not seem to list input impedance.... Perhaps Alberto Guerra can chime in on the subject.

Saluti, Guido

Hello Mallard, I concur with you.... Personally, I neither rail against GaN nor do I trumpet it as the imminent savior of the high end audio industry.... Rather, I am openly curious about it, and hope that in the hands of competent designers/engineers it can be a useful part of the brodening toolkit available for creating superior amplifiers, not necessarily to the exlusion of other technologies.

 Worldwidewholesales has the right idea in bringing into his lab  to evaluate both the Element 116 and the VIvace... I am looking forward to reading his opinions of these two devices. 

Saluti, Guido

According to my well informed sources, Bruno Putzeys has left Hypex over two years ago. As such, I doubt very much that Putzeys latest design developed with Purifi relies on any Hypex/NCore patents.

Regards, G.

George, Putzeys leaving Hypex was already known some two years ago.

Purifi.nl has currently no information about the new module design....I filled a form to be updated with any news. I have heard no clear indication one way or another on whether Purifi is utilizing any GaN transistors.... We will have to wait a spell.

G.

To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Putzeys has not embraced the higher performance conjectures behind GaN transistors's use in class D amplifiers at this time.

Once again, from the best of my knowledge, the Lyndorf amp in question likely sports Putsey's latest thinking in class D module design.

Regards, G.

I wonder when @George-Hifi will be restrained from posting his tedious condescending comments ad hominem.... Members who disagree with him are invariably insulted as being a "lackie", a Dummy", or the ever popular "sunshine", or derided by posting a Youtube link of the song of the cu-cu bird.... And then there the rather gross mention of -- if I so remember correctly -- "dumping a load" on the floor.... And no, that did not appear to be a fantasy about a novel technique for grounding an audio component, but about the deposition of a human bio-hazard in a public space.

If this post of mine were deemed to be a candidate for removal by the probi viri, I hope that it will also spurn their action to moderate the aforementioned inappropriate language, and so return this fine thread to an enlightening technical discussion among polite and responsible adults.

Best regards, Guido

Hello @ron1264, you might be incorrect about the switching frequencies of the Merrill Element amps.... Per the review on SixMoon, the Element 114 switches at 400Khz.... Merrill can comment further, in particular about the switching frequencies of Element 116 and Element 118.

Ultimately of course, the switching frequency value is purely a curiosity... What matters is the overall audible performance of a device... And, at least to my earrs, the Merrill Element 118 prototype that I listened to in 2018 certainly did not fall short in the resolution department, regardless of its switching frequency.

G.

Sorry Ron, the only GaN amp I have listened to is an Element 118 prototype, nor do I know if the device was entirely broken-in.

G.

Ahem... Some people here suffer from a bad case of "Princess and the Switching Frequency Pea" *Grins!*

Saluti, G.