GaN amps: Peachtree or LSA Voyager?

@kuribo 

WOW. I can't imagine why you would trash the Peachtree/Voyager amps. I have owned a considerable number of tube, SS, hybrids, I rank the Voyager with the very best of them. I listen to a wide variety of music, and it never disappoints

The only thing infinite here is the bs being slung by profiteers who constantly shill their snake oil and prey upon the audio nervosa of the uninformed and insecure.

It is an indisputable fact that the Peachtree and Voyager used GaN modules have a load dependent frequency response. That means that they will sound different with different speakers and at different frequencies with the same speaker if it is one with a widely varying impedance. It may well be appealing with some speakers and yet not so much with others. This was a known issue with the old Tripath class d designs as well as I mentioned previously. It is a less than optimal design which has been solved and overcome by nearly every class d design in the last 20 years. It’s a known and potentially serious issue. It’s like a car that handles differently depending on the temperature outside: when it’s sunny and warm, it performs like a Porsche and when it is cloudy and cool, like a Pinto. If that makes you happy, then by all means enjoy the Peachtree and LSA module.

Anyone who takes the time to educate themselves and does a little reading will find that there are no real benefits to GaN devices when used in class d amps at low switching frequencies other than marketing appeal. There can be real benefits- but only if they are implemented in such a way that those benefits can be utilized. Low switching frequencies do not do it. Hand waving won’t do it. Read.

And here we have another audio fallacy: feedback is bad. Again, anyone who takes the time to read the latest research and listens to amps like the Purifi, Orchard, Atmosphere’s new class d, etc., will realize this old trope is based on a lack of knowledge or in this case, more self interested tweak sales.

Notice how every comment about these class d amps includes a self serving comment about how "I can improve them"? It’s a nonstop sales pitch filled with falsehoods. The Purifi and Orchard amps have been designed and engineered to do exactly what an amplifier is by definition: they take the input and make it bigger with as little distortion as possible. If you want to add distortion and give an amp some sort of euphonious sound profile, use DSP which is much cheaper and without all the dishonesty. And you can tailor the "sound" profile to what suits you, rather than what suits your local charlatan.

 

All I know is I had an integrated amplifier with Purifi modules that sound very well mediocre. Had a GaN amplifier that was just more of the same mediocre. Not going to slam the brands as they were not my cup of tea that's all. 

My Rogue Pharaoh II is sounding really good! Enjoying it immensely and gets better every day. 

@kuribo you are correct. Who cares what other’s opinions are.