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Stock Voyager GaN amp (350/600) Contrasted with my EVS1200 (600/1200)

The Voyager (V) I received is well broken in, and as the title says, it is stock. An upgraded version will come later.


I let the V warm up for ~ 24 hours while I listened to my beloved EVS 1200 (~$2300) playing a wide variety of Redbook CDs; The Judds, Chris Issak Heart Shaped World, Leonard Cohen remastered collection, Willie Nelson Across the Borderline, the Eagles Hell Freezes Over, and Jennifer Nettles Playing with Fire (love the music, but the mastering has a few ear bleed cuts- or does it???). I capped the session off with Roger Waters Amused to Death SACD, a huge, occasionally very dynamic, and intentionally phasey recording. While I enjoyed the hell out this listening session, but afixed in my mind was reading others reporting on their not fully broken in V amps frequently mentioning detail/clarity, the music via the EVS 1200 wasn't as focused as I felt it should, but have accepted for 2 years, as it easily outperformed my PS Audio M700s (MSRP $4000), FYI, their M1200s are based on the same IceEdge AS1200 modules as my EVS 1200, but untouched. They simply added their own tube input stage (MSRP $7000), and Audio Alchemys DPA-1 ($2000), wish I could have tried the monos ($4000), but...


Could  the lack of focus be elsewhere, like the Wire World Electra 7 Power Conditioning cord ($240), connected to my Audio Alchemy DDP-1 + PS 5, which is IMO, my weakest PC, all the others are $700+, or my $150 Pangea XL coax cable? How would the V stack up?  Im thinking it can't be THAT much better, and what about the huge power disparity in my ~ 26 x 38 X 12 lively room with lots of glass and open beam ceilings, which adds up to brightness?


I connected the V, but didn't want to start with any of the same discs, just in case the V needed to see some signal before being ready for the comparison, so I chose Getz/Gilberto Jobim and Astrud Gilberto SACD as a nice way to ease into the Voyager. I haven't listened to this disc in months, so no recent memory to taint hearing it now. Did I say 'ease'. Silly me.


I'll cut to the chase hear/here, from the first note, it was obvious that this is a special amp, but at $3500 MSRP? OMG: What a steal!!! The focus reminds me of how much sharper and with greater depth of field pictures taken with Leica camera lens are, compared to all other cameras and lenses. GaNs magic is the equivalent of Tesla EV motor speed- immediate: The V grabbed me from the first note.


More  to come after I go through the Redbook CDs that I started with, but I already know it's a moot point. And wilder, still, LSA has already made a few tweaks, like the internal wiring for an additional $175.


Ric Schultz was right when he said expensive amps will be boat anchors
tweak1

Showing 16 responses by viber6

viber6
2,438 posts
 
Thanks.
viber6
2,438 posts
 
tweak1,
Appreciate your input.  Since you received the V last Thurs, you have only had them 150 hours, with probably much less play time.  How do you know how many hours Wally put in for you, as a good customer?  Someone on the LSA Voyager GaN thread said that initially the V was harsh, then later it became tubelike.  Perhaps you are in the transition phase from hyper detailed/harsh to tubelike.  Perhaps your EVS1200 has become warmer sounding with age, since you wrote after a month or so of ownership, that the EVS was neutral/detailed.  Let's see what you find after 500 hours or so on the V.

I have been breaking in my Rouge 1200 amp with the same CD of Mozart violin concertos on repeat, 16 hours/day, now about 365 hours.  I listen attentively on and off, and I know the tonal characteristics of all the music on this CD very well by now.  This is more informative than switching between different recordings.  Of course, when we live with the system, we want to hear all kinds of music, but for testing purposes this leads to confusion.  Also, trying various footers, cables and such is confusing because of all the variables introduced.  Just use the same ancillary equipment to A/B the V and EVS amps.  It doesn't matter that Machina Dynamica springs are better than sorbothane footers, because the same relative differences between the amps will be found.
viber6
2,438 posts
 
tweak1,
So you don't find the Voyager tubelike, which are the impressions of others here?  The promotional materials for many GaN amps assert that they are smooth/sweet/tubelike.  This is true with Voyager and the upcoming Mytek GaN amps.  This is what I heard with the Merrill 114 I had for a few weeks.

Everything is relative.  Amp A sounds neutral and clear until you hear amp B which sounds even more neutral and clear, and shows A to be tubelike by comparison.  So is A the EVS1200, and B the Voyager?
viber6
2,438 posts
 
ricevs,
Yes, there are many tweaks that affect the sound.  Suppose you have sorbothane feet on amp A and B, then you put better feet on both amps.  The essential differences between A and B will still be approximately the same, although both A and B will advance by the same X increment.  Mathematically, (B + X) minus (A + X) equals (B minus A).  At home, everyone has a different system, but we should use the same ancillary components no matter how good or bad they are, in order to zero in on the essential differences between A and B amps.  

Another meaning of the "infinite shade of things" is that there is a continuum of the tonal spectrum ranging from muddy, old style tube 1950's sound to the other end, which is raw, brilliant, sterile.  Sometimes we think A is neutral, until we hear B, which makes A seem tubey compared to B, even by small degrees.  Vocabulary is usually vague, so there is no substitute for careful, educated listening.  
viber6
2,438 posts
 
Whatever your preferred system and acoustic tweaks you use, listen to the Voyager for many more weeks in a standardized way, and then go back to the EVS1200, to report on your findings.  I got lost trying to follow your findings with so many changes going on.  Thanks.
viber6
2,438 posts
 
Tweak1,
Sorry, I couldn't find the Technics review in TAS online.  Do you have a link?  What is the full name of the Technics amp so I can try searching for it?  Thanks.
viber6
2,438 posts
 
Absence of earsplitting pain suggests that the Voyager softens the bad music even just a little.  My Rouge IceEdge is quite neutral, whereas the V may be slightly warmer, according to the comments of most V users.  I suppose Ric's mods retain the neutrality and further enhance the clarity, but......

If Ric's mods warm the stock IceEdge a bit, this might correlate with your finding that the V has more clarity.  Strange.
viber6
2,438 posts
 
It's all a matter of degree of warmth.  Warmth is most obvious for HF, but the rest of the freq range is affected as well.  The most clarity/detail is enabled by neutrality.  With a reasonably efficient speaker and music that doesn't demand very loud SPL's, the AHB2 is the best for clarity/detail.  No risk if someone doesn't like it--return before 30 days to either Benchmark or a retailer.  But the V has a 15% restocking fee.
viber6
2,438 posts
 
ricevs,
Let me try to answer your observations--

"Neutrality can be all over the place because no one does straight wire bypass tests on amplifiers. Some call an amp neutral when it has no natural warmth........what is natural warmth? Just your guess. I think you can have an amp that has natural warmth and super detail. The question is.....does the Benchmark have natural warmth.....or does it lack natural warmth? Again as you say......the degree of warmth."

Words are poor approximations of what we hear.  I want as much transparency as I can get.  Can we objectify "transparency?"  YES--do the bypass test with and without the line stage between the source and power amp.  Assuming no impedance mismatches,  the totally transparent line stage will have no effect on the sound compared to source direct to power amp.  With all of the line stages and preamps I have tried over the years, when the line stage was added, there was a loss of transparency/detail and INCREASE IN WARMTH.  That is the best definition of warmth I can come up with, and you know what I am talking about.  On a more subtle level, you have found that different wires exhibit this phenomenon.  I'll speculate that the shorter length of any wire, the better and more transparent it is.  Eliminating contact points as from your binding post alternative no doubt increases transparency, and I will speculate that it also decreases warmth.  See the next paragraph.

However, NATURAL warmth has nothing to do with audio systems, but it is a characteristic of some live unamplified instruments and voices in a certain acoustical setting.  The warmth in audio systems is NOT natural; it is just plain euphonic distortion with loss of information.  Some have attributed this to even order 2nd or 4th harmonic distortion in tubes and tubelike SS electronics.  Also see my latest 2 posts on Jay's thread on this subject.


viber6
2,438 posts
 
Totally correct--"Also, no matter what the instrument I want to hear the leading edge of the notes as well as the body of the instrument, plus the harmonics and decay."  All these are attributes of live music.  However, in audio systems which lose detail at all frequencies, "body" is dominant over fine detail.  The audio system "body" is usually fuzzy, distorted mush, most notably from euphonic tube amps and most dynamic speakers.  There is a difference between live unamplified instrumental "body" and this audio mush, which people with insufficient live unamplified musical experience do not fathom.
viber6
2,438 posts
 
grannyring,
Just listen carefully to natural live unamped music and nonmusical sounds of nature. The "tight" body of the live piano is like an anvil being hit with a hammer/mallet.  The tightness of the bouncing basketball, the scary body of thunder all make audio system bass/midrange sound like a wet loose noodle.  Have you heard a French horn or tuba up close?  Their "body" is tight, focused, with quite a bit of HF overtones which contribute to the focus.  By contrast, and by COMPARISON, the dynamic drivers and euphonic electronics of certain audio systems contribute mush and fuzz.  

This is not a debatable observation for armchair discussion.  You either hear it or you don't, depending on your familiarity with live unamped sounds.
viber6
2,438 posts
 
Ricevs,
The reviewer, Anthony Cordesman is an old, seasoned listener who I have read for 40 years.  He assumes the reader knows the extensive comments he has made over the years.  Still, you are right that taken as an isolated review, it is not as detailed as we would like. 
viber6
2,438 posts
 
Ricevs,
Yes, the review contained no comparisons, which we all wanted.  He is an old man, so may not want to bother.  Still, his few words are informative, like the amp being uncolored.  This is much more informative than a typical young reviewer going off on his emotional tangents saying how a component gives him peace and improves his relationship with his friend, etc.  That one word, "uncolored" is enough for the interested listener to go hear the amp somewhere, and better yet, try it himself.  All too often, audiophiles hang on the every word of the reviewer as though he were a mystical guru.  All these reviewers are full of BS.  The best source of info is threads like this, where the owner doesn't have a business interest in the product which would bias his statements.  In particular, yyz and tweak1 have done great jobs telling us honestly what they hear, comparing AHB2 and EVS1200 to Voyager/Peachtree.  When they tell us the effects of your mods, the advertising bias and increasing uselessness of the mags will be further exposed.
viber6
2,438 posts
 
Merrill W. in his Element GaN's, told me that LOWER switching speed is actually better.  This is because dead time is a fixed constant for the particular transistor, so if there is lower switching speed, there is a longer time before switching needs to occur, or that the fraction of time spent doing the switching is lower with a lower freq of switching.  His GaN's use a switching speed of 400 kHz.

That aside, I agree with art_boston who implies that the overall design is far more important than any 1 factor, such as switching speed.
viber6
2,438 posts
 
cascadesphil,
How about midrange and HF clarity, speed, transparency from the modded Voyager vs EVS 1200 (approximately a modded Rouge Studio N10-DM)?

I am in touch with Rouge.  The Pascal modules are claimed to be superior to IceEdge for clarity/neutrality.  My Mytek Brooklyn Amp original version uses modified lower power Pascal modules.  The Mytek is a sharper, leaner sound than the Studio IceEdge Rouge, which is still neutral but fuller in bass with full dynamics, as Jay had found.  The upcoming Pascal MPRO2 module is stable to 2 ohms.  The available MPRO2 has the highest clarity with analytical quality, but it is designed for speakers with minimum load of 4 ohms.
viber6
2,438 posts
 
Cascadesphil,
I just messaged tweak1, and I hope you get together and A/B the stock Voyager with your modded Voyager in each other's systems.  There are many variables you discussed, so if you guys can keep it simple and constant, you can figure out what the mods do, pro and con.
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