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GAN amplifiers - Are they that good?

thugger

thugger

Wipe that stupid grin off you're face!..
Seem to be an exciting prospect, What do you fine peeps think?
I’m waiting to have a loan of the AGD amps, later this month, will post my findings. The Distributor seems to think I am unlikely to send them back... we shall see...
 
https://www.agdproduction.com/static/gantube.html

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It seems like a gimmick to put a class D solid state amp inside a glass tube. What are the benefits? They seem to be SMD PCBs (already kind of difficult to work on), enclosed in glass?

Is this the HiFi equivalent of a ship in a bottle? :rolleyes:
 
First I’d heard of ‘GAN’ and had to have a read-up. How much are they in the U.K.?

interested to read your findings.
 
The picture is of the Vivace, which is the mid range model of three. Approx £13k. The model I’m looking at is the Audion which is sold as a pair mono blocks approx £7.5k/pr
GAN is short for Gallium Nitride. A replacement for Silicon in transistors like FETs. They are Class D and I applaud a designer who tries to come up with a look that suggests what he is trying to do with his circuit design, in this case the sound of SETs with the power and control of SS. Reviews so far suggest he may have succeeded.
The Tube lookalikes are the output stages and plug into the amp body which contains the PSU. There are three outputs 125w, 150w & 200w. The lower powers are in KT88 tubes and the 200w models have tubes that look like KT150’s
 
It's just another output device. What you do with it is what counts. Orchard Audio have a GAn class d amp.
 
Funny that Samsung used GaN devices in class D amps for consumer applications quite a few years ago. The intention was to increase the switching frequency over what was achievable with Si mosfets in order to achieve lower distortion and thereby get nearer to the performance of class A/B amps.
 
Noah must be about 21 years old now. He would been about 8 when GaN started to be used commercially in power switches.
 
Looks interesting. I can understand the technical advantage for switching speed and thermal noise. Look forward to your findings.
 
There a review on You tube. OCD hifi guy compares against class A valve amps and suggests the APG are better.
 
AGD_The_Audion_GaNTube_Monoblocks_2417.jpg
Jonqpr said:
There a review on You tube. OCD hifi guy compares against class A valve amps and suggests the APG are better.
Click to expand...
thugger said:
The picture is of the Vivace, which is the mid range model of three. Approx £13k. The model I’m looking at is the Audion which is sold as a pair mono blocks approx £7.5k/pr
GAN is short for Gallium Nitride. A replacement for Silicon in transistors like FETs. They are Class D and I applaud a designer who tries to come up with a look that suggests what he is trying to do with his circuit design, in this case the sound of SETs with the power and control of SS. Reviews so far suggest he may have succeeded.
The Tube lookalikes are the output stages and plug into the amp body which contains the PSU. There are three outputs 125w, 150w & 200w. The lower powers are in KT88 tubes and the 200w models have tubes that look like KT150’s
Click to expand...
Image of the smallest AGD’s called the Audion.
 
booja30 said:
It seems like a gimmick to put a class D solid state amp inside a glass tube. What are the benefits? They seem to be SMD PCBs (already kind of difficult to work on), enclosed in glass?

Is this the HiFi equivalent of a ship in a bottle? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

New one on me - it does indeed to this layman look like a class D amp in a bottle. Can some explain what's going on in idiot-proof terms please?
 
I believe the designer liked the visual play of the class D circuit in a tube while trying to get the tube sonic signature also. One upshot is that he also used the standard tube base connector, which enables the output circuit to be swapped out like real tubes. They are already in mk2 variants and future improvements, if they come along, can be swapped in. A possible cheap upgrade path.
Clever, I think...
 
thugger said:
I believe the designer liked the visual play of the class D circuit in a tube while trying to get the tube sonic signature also. One upshot is that he also used the standard tube base connector, which enables the output circuit to be swapped out like real tubes. They are already in mk2 variants and future improvements, if they come along, can be swapped in. A possible cheap upgrade path.
Clever, I think...
Click to expand...

Done in the 1970,s by RCA.
They use FET then also.
 
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