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What are the best GaN Amplifiers available today?

There have been a number of threads discussing the wonder of GaN and some of the individual amplifiers that have caught peoples attention, including those from AGD, Atma-Sphere, Peachtree, LSA, etc. Has anyone done a shootout against two or more GaN amps? If so, which did you prefer, and why? And on what speakers?

Also, of the one you preferred, do you prefer it over every other amplifier you’ve ever heard? If not, what non-GaN amp do you enjoy more?

blisshifi
benzman's avatar
benzman
446 posts
 

I am in Metro Detroit if anybody would like to come buy and listen to the Laiv Ganm. 
Hard to come by an audition with no US dealers and no free trial. 

t_ramey
672 posts
 

Hi @lak , do you know someone with the class d audio GaN amps that has shared their impressions? I’m interested to know if they’re good at soundstage depth and layering. I recently got an SMSL pa-x GaN amp and while it’s great at detail retrieval it’s not the greatest at depth beyond the speakers. 
 

How is the depth on your Laiv amps?

lak's avatar
lak
4,819 posts
 

@t_ramey, contact mapman on Audiogon.

Laiv GaNM, in my system has good soundstage depth and layering unfortunately I have not heard any other Gan amps for a comparison.

t_ramey
672 posts
 

Thanks lak, somehow I missed that mapman owns the class d audio amps.

 

Hi @mapman, do you own the stereo or monoblock amps from class d audio? How do you describe the soundstage? Thanks for any feedback.

hbarrel's avatar
hbarrel
554 posts
 

@t_ramey I have the mono blocks. I think they have a nice sound stage. 
Class D does offer a try it trial period. Which essentially means the consumer has nothing to lose other than return shipping costs. 
I found the break-in time to be not short. I’m guessing 50 hours. Or more. 

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