Galion TS120

@avanti1960 Thanks for the clarification. 

Hi dz 13. Congrats on the Valhalla amp. Enjoy it!

I was fortunate enough to test a Galion TS120SE. I have a separate discussion for it, but here's my .02 after a month of evaluation.

The week before the Galion arrived, I listened to my current amplifier (Line Magnetic LM-805ia) a couple hours every night so everything was fresh and familiar. Like most of us, I have a reference playlist with songs I’m intimately familiar with.

On the day the Galion arrived I listened for a few hours. My initial thoughts were that it definitely lived up to the claims from Thomas as well as the other Youtubers that reviewed it. He wasn’t joking about it having solid-state-like bass. The bass is great. I liked it a lot. Regardless of what some might have to say about tone controls, I like em. They don't have a ton of adjustment, but it's enough so I can dial in for my liking. I tried switching modes back/forth from bypass to active tone controls (with the knobs in the neutral setting) and I couldn’t hear a difference. I’m not sure if this is an accurate way to test if the tone knobs affect sound quality or not though.

I listened for about a week with the stock tubes and then started wondering how it would respond to tube rolling. I ordered 4qty of the newer Mullard KT88’s, 2 qty Genalex Gold Lion 12AX7, and 2qty 12AU7’s and was curious to see if the Galion would respond to tube rolling in the same favorable way my Line Magnetic did. I swapped the 12AU7’s first and was noticed a wider sound stage. The stock tubes were okay, but the Gold Lions were definitely an improvement as far as soundstage width is concerned. After about 8 hours of listening, I installed the 12AX7’s. They changed the tone a bit, but not much else. I would still recommend them, but not entirely necessary. Lastly, I dropped in the quartet of Mullard KT88’s. Those smoothed things out nicely. After all was said and done with the tube rolling, I was happy with it sounded

One feature I really liked is that is has dedicated RCA outs for a L/R subs. I used those to connect my DEBRA sub array and it sounded much better with dedicated RCA sub connections. On the LM, I had a DIY/ millercarbon recommended line out converter. With Galion sub outs the bass went deeper, was less boomy, cleaner and tighter with more impact.

The midrange was good, but didn’t have the same amount of openness as my L/M. I will say at certain times the Galion did seem to have more soundstage depth though.

The the imaging was great and instruments were nicely separated. No complaints here. The only thing I noticed was in only vocal songs, it sounded more compact than my L/M. The LM seemed slightly more “tubey” sounding and holographic than the Galion.

The top end was nice. No complaints at all. I watched a video that mentioned the top end was harsh early on, but I had no such experience. It was smooth and I listened for hours and hours with no fatigue.

These last 3 things are minor issues, but are things that I would change:

1. Bright blue LED lights are not pleasing to my eyes. I put electrical tape over all of them.

2. The remote buttons are loud. When listening at low volume, even if you smother the button with your entire thumb pad, I can’t make it quieter. It makes a loud click. I would put some electrical tape over those as well to dampen the sound a bit.

3. When I adjust volume (which is often) the volume increment movement is a bit too much. One bump of the volume button would make it loud enough where I’d have to get up and set it manually lower about 1/2 the movement.

In the end, I did not buy it and ended up sending it to the next reviewer. Thomas was great and sent a UPS label to cover shipping. He also sent me a set of Shuangang KT88’s to try out. Those were a little too warm for me/ too much bass. The Mullard KT88’s sounded better to me. Also worth mentioning: the Galion auto biasing worked flawlessly for me.

If you are thinking about it, I say go for it. If the Galion was out when I bought the Primluna EVO 300, I would have purchased the Galion instead. It sounds better to me and I would have also have saved a nice chunk of change.

@veerossi Thanks for the report. I was very much considering the Galion. Thomas had suggested that I be part of the testing process but I declined after obtaining the Valhalla mainly because the effort of switching these heavy amps and connections seemed a bit too much as well as dealing with the shipping. I will say that I am ecstatic with the Valhalla amp and anyone who wants to know about it can ask me but it is off topic here.

It seems that this price point of about $3,500 -- $5,000 has some great options for integrated tube amps. I am curious about your final decision. Was it based upon the tubes, the 805 tubes you have in your LM? Is it the synergy in your system? Or are you thinking of something else?

My final decision to pass on the Galion is that I already have a terrific sounding amplifier. Buying the Galion would be a lateral move at best. If I’m going to go through the expense of upgrading, I want it to be for an end-game amp. Usually, this means doubling of the budget spent on the last one.

I just want to update my situation. I am using the Valahalla amp for my main speakers, Spatial Audio Lab X5s. I went to Pacific Audio Fest and met the Spatial Audio Lab gang who are also making the Valhalla amp. Also Don Sachs who built the Valhalla amp (and has taught Cloud Sessions at Spatial Audio Lab to build them) and Lynn Olson whose design Don used. Don and Lynn are building a 300b monoblock piece de resistance which is the main topic of the 300b thread. I got to hear a prototype along with Cloud Sessions' improved Valhalla amp as well as Spatial Audio Lab's new speakers. 

Anyhow, I originally got the Valhalla to drive the Nola Boxers but it was better than the LTA and so the LTA went to drive the Boxers. I changed the set up (furniture) and the LTA unfortunately no longer fit inside the furniture as it was about an inch too wide. I had a Nakamichi TA-4A which had been recapped and sounded good so I used that as a placeholder. 

Carl Marchisotto, the guy who is behind the Nola speakers (and I also said hello to at the Pacific Audio Fest) had emailed me saying that the Boxers were meant to be played with KT88 tubes (the Valhalla uses K66 tubes and the LTA uses EL34s or KT77s) and his customers had found synergy with the Cayin CS-88A integrated tube amp. I finally found one used for sale on the Canuck Audio Mart (I've found some nice stuff there including the Boxers at less than 1/2 price as well as PS Audio's phono stage at about 1/2 price). Just came in today and yes there is synergy and a very rich sound. Heavy sucker bot it fits the space and really works well with the speakers. I had some things to deal with in terms of inputs and the right channel not working until I made sure the tubes were all pushed in but it sounds exactly what I knew these speakers could do. Yay!