2. digital
  3. 181448-1574

The revolution has begun!

Digital amps along with digital xovers are the future.....and you can have it NOW. I am not going to say that a $1400 Peachtree GaN1 amp will sound better than a $120K MSB Select, $145K Boulder Preamp and Bouder $250K mono blocks with $20K worth of cables in between (over half a million plus power cords and amp stands)......but it did beat the Holo May KTE with the Holo Serene Pre and Kinki B7 mono blocks with $1000 worth of interconnects ($13k). So what will it take to beat this $200 digital board from Elegant Audio Solutions powered from a $100 switching power supply? With a digital amp you do not need a DAC or a preamp or regular amp with feedback, tubes, or transistors. With digital amps you can bi or triamp your speaker drivers directly without the distortion of passive components. In fact, I would bet that if you bought two GaN 1 amps, bought the $600 digital xover from minisdp (with great linear supply and great coax cables) and biamped some drivers directly that it would sound better than most $50K systems. You could get 2 12 inch woofs and mount them on an open baffle and put a beryllium tweenter on top and set the xover to 1K or less (48db per octave). You hardwire your speaker cable to the woofers voice coil wires and use Music Purifiers and Ground Enhancers on each driver.....Bybee Clarifiers on the back of the woofer magnets.......speaker wires hardwired via plastic clamps into the amps (no binding posts or spades allowed here!). Of course, you can triamp.....and manufacturers will soon have powered digital speaker so all you will need is a source.

There will be other manufacturers designing and building digital amps that will (no doubt) be better than the EAS boards.....but they will come at a price. These, yet to be made digital amps will blow the industry wide open....as no more big heavy expensive boxes will ever need to be purchased......but what EAS has not is fantastic. When I do some mods to the Peachtree amp next month it should get a step or two better. Have fun!

http://tweakaudio.com/EVS-2/The_Audio_Revolution_has_begun.html

I have started a webpage about all this and more and will be updating it continuously.

ricevs
yyzsantabarbara
4,466 posts
 

@bigtwin Can I afford a Boulder, a single amp, yes. A stack of Boulder gear, no.  Being able to afford one and wanting one are different. At one time I desired these uber expensive gear but I did a lot of listening, bought some semi-expensive gear, and later sold them. I now know what I like and the max cost to achieve that (around $65K including speakers). There are more expensive speakers that I would love to have but I can get similar happiness for less.

If I were to be given a Boulder amp for free or something with a smaller form factor, I would take the smaller amp because the Boulder gear is too big. It would annoy the crap out of me just looking at it. There are a lot of mega dollar gear that I would not want. I have heard a lot of them so I know what I would be missing. 

This GAN1 amp I am getting I assume is certainly not going to cut it for my next speakers but what I am curious about is how good is this iteration of the digital GAN gear (Technics, Lyngdorf et al). I wanted to buy the Lyngdorf a few years ago but the amp section really disappointed me. I want to hear where we are with this digital tech today with the GAN1, which is actually more exciting for me to hear than the Boulder (call me crazy). Maybe the next more powerful GAN iteration (with volume and more inputs) will be something to consider.

falconquest's avatar
falconquest
1,108 posts
 

I suppose this digital amp requires digital speakers.

aberyclark
1,355 posts
 

I love my Class A Luxman. HOWEVER, digital amps are great for listening to the ball game out in the garage

sokogear
1,050 posts
 

Isn't this an unpaid infomercial? I thought that wasn't allowed here.

pwdmark's avatar
pwdmark
25 posts
 

Arguing an unproven philosophy with many highly experienced music lovers and audiophiles is not a road to success I’m afraid.

Different strokes for.... well maybe even a secondary system?

I am posting this from Ralph’s website for a couple reasons. First Ralph is very clear about ... The result is a SOLID STATE amplifier.....

And he says he is using them at home. Well of course he is.

And just today I read of an owner of dual class A Pass Labs and receiving his first electricity bill under his energy suppliers rate hikes! Doubled in price and no relief in sight. Nothing for most movers and shakers, glad I have an old (completely rebuilt/upgraded) A/B Mosfet amp that stays in Class A always due to nearfield listening.

Even with good reviews already in the secondary market.

http://www.atma-sphere.com/en/classD.html

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