GaN FET Amps vs. Traditional Class D Amps

Need to listen to the Atma-sphere amps. To date, the best I have heard are the false tube type made in Italy. Cant remember the company name. Still not as good as tradition types to my ears. Most class D I have heard sound pretty pedestrian. 

@phillyb everything you said is what I hear. And it was exactly like that when the popular Nuforce class-d  amps appeared 20 years ago. Then you hear traditional amplification that has ‘realism’ and you notice the weakness.

However there have recently been some ultra high end brands, such as Tidal and Aavik, who now claim to have cracked class-d in sound quality and the reviews seem to concur, so I keep hopes up.

Pickup a used Aavik (Denmark) U-150 Integrated if you can find one......Hook it in to your system...get the one that Huff says has a world class DAC and MC phono amp included........each worth 8K on their own merit...End Game....if you're not blown away send it back....TMR has one around $8500.

They are often described as having a more natural sound due to their minimal feedback requirements, which helps avoid harshness

@mapman This bit is nonsense, just so you know. The use of GaNFETs has nothing to do with how much feedback is or isn't used. 

Capable of driving difficult loads, such as planar or electrostatic speakers,

This bit is only true if the amp employs a fair bit of feedback. Otherwise it can be load variant.

GanFET technology offers several advantages over traditional Class D amplifiers, particularly in sound quality and efficiency.

The main advantages are lower parasitic noise due to reduced inductances, and a lower turn on resistance resulting in less heat.

I've been using a Classe CA-D200 class D amp for years.  I don't know which "type" it is, but I've been very happy with it in my main system.  I admit I haven't auditioned anything else in a long long time (I was using a B&K amp before the Classe) but I don't feel as though I'm "missing" anything. After visiting what seemed like 200 audio systems during AXPONA I was delighted to discover my system sounds pretty darned good in comparison to a lot of the megabuck systems I heard (I know, I know, the show systems are set up in less-than-ideal acoustic spaces). I probably should bring home a big old A/B beast to compare, but I'm experiencing a mix of laziness/satisfaction that makes it difficult to take that first step. My son and I listened to Paranoid Eyes from PF's The Final Cut (2016 vinyl reissue) on Saturday and the combination of microdetails, midrange sweetness (piano) and low frequency slam were breathtaking.