Anyone hear the Class D Audio Mini GaN 5 amp yet?


Looks intriguing but not much out there on it yet so wondering if anyone here has had a chance to hear it or, even better, had a chance to compare it to other amps. Thinking of taking a flier on this amp given the tech and price, but we all know implementation is everything so looking for some real-world impressions before ponying up any dough. Also, please let’s not make this yet another measurement debate — I’m purely interested in sonic impressions here so take your measurement comments elsewhere. Thanks.
soix

I'm rather surprised and a bit confused.  I have an Esoteric F-05 driving Egglestonworks 9se speakers, Pontus II dac, Spacedeck table with a high end Van Den Hul cartridge.

I had heard some mid range clang if you will at moderate to high volumes for which I had to adjust tone controls on the Esoteric quite dramatically.  I became concerned maybe they weren't getting enough wattage from the Esoteric.

I wanted to see what some additional wattage would do, and wanted to do it as an experiment as cheaply as possible.

In my system after 1 day of break in the soundstage expanded (although vocals rather fixed centrally, depth variable was impressive), clarity improved, and for what it's worth stopped needing to use my tone controls.  Maybe a touch thinner but all other parameters improved.  I really couldn't believe my ears so had multiple friends with great ears listened.  The all voted for the 5.  Guess I'll keep it.  Dang. 

 

@maw8c Congrats! Once the amp is fully burned in and you’re acclimated to it you might consider talking to Ric Schultz at Electronic Visionary Systems about mods he’s developed for your amp. He upgrades/reworks key parts that can bring these amps to an even higher level of performance for relatively small cost for the improvement you get. There’s more info on his website if you might be interested at some point. I was seriously considering the GaN5 as well as I’m sure once modded it could be a pretty special amp on the relative cheap, but I decided to have my McCormack amp upgraded instead and although I know it’ll be a great amp I still wonder if I made the right choice.  Anyway, enjoy the new amp and if you would please report back with your thoughts as the amp settles in. 

I'll cut to the chase: some of the most musical amps I've heard in over 40 years in this wonderful pursuit.  My tube amps, which are high quality all, have been silent since I started using the Class D Audio MiniGan 5's (mono's and XLR).  You can follow the detailed thread on the Audio Circle Spatial Audio page.  But, with Spatial Audio Sapphire M3's, these MiniGans are absolutely astounding.  In example, I own 100 lb., 50 watt, Class A, Psvane 845 mono's (tubed with Linlai's Elite series tubes).  Some of the finest 845 amps ever.  For my musical taste, the MiniGans, weighing 5 lbs., 300 watts, out-perform the Psvanes.   Upstairs, on Merlins, the MiniGans, again, to my musical taste, out-perform Manley Neo-Classic 300B's, Granite Audio 864 SR's,  Hartung OTL's (all mono's). Extraordinary development. Revolution?  Seems to me....

I had a bad experience, 2 units bad. First one came on the 17th and kept going into protection mode. Replacement came on the 21st worked till the 23rd and same symptoms.I couldnt't even tell you how they sound