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

sebrof


Ok so your only going to use one channel of each amp, and leave the other unused??

If so you could go these true mono’s for the same price as two of those
https://orchardaudio.com/mono
Cheers George

I saw the Orchard amps but they are out of stock.

I received the Mini Gan 5 amps 2 days ago and I’ve got some listening in.

After thinking about it I realize that I may not be a good reference for these amps for 2 reasons: 1. I am using them only below 800 Hz (I have a 2A3 amp for the highs) and 2. I have no other reference for any other amplifier in this system except for a pair of Quicksilver M-60 PPP Kt-88 monoblocks that I’ve been running for years.

But having said that… 

These guys are no joke. I have lots more listening to do but at this point I believe they sound better than the tube amps and I have no desire to swap back. The bass is much cleaner and tighter as I suppose would be expected, but it’s not lean IMO. Sound is nice and full but not tubby which the tube amps could be on certain songs at certain (higher) volume. I don’t hear any of the negatives associated with Class D amps but no way for me to tell if I would hear that with any other Si class D amp, or a class A/B amp for that matter.

 As is for all things of this nature time will tell, I may completely change my mind after some more listening. And how these amps do playing above 800 Hz I have no idea. But for $750 I’m impressed, and a bit surprised.

And how these amps do playing above 800 Hz I have no idea.

@sebrof — Why don’t you just take the damn 2A3 amp out of the system and see how the GaN 5 sounds running your speakers full range or even just running from 800Hz and up? Would be useful info.

Why don’t you just take the damn 2A3 amp out of the system and see how the GaN 5 sounds running your speakers full range or even just running from 800Hz and up? Would be useful info.

'Cause I'd have to build a passive crossover (I use an active XO).

I leant one of the GaN 5 amps to a friend who has a SS amp MSRP in the $5,000 range, and who also has had class D amps in his system. He liked the GaN 5 amp a lot, not as much as his SS amp but said the GaN 5 bass and dynamics were excellent, grain free highs. A winner compared to the other class D amps he's had. He thought that if he had a tube preamp it might be a great combination but in his system the GaN 5 was just a tad "clean n lean" compared to his SS amp.

Great info.  Thanks!  I just posted the same thought of pairing the GaN 5 with a tubed pre on my other thread on this topic — very intriguing. 

Greetings all. Just getting back into the audio game after a 9 year absence.

Just got one in today and after only about 2.5 hours of playing I’m very impressed. Best Class D I’ve ever heard and I’ve had the best the like of Bel Canto and Wyred 4 Sound had to offer. No comparison IMHO.

The midrange is simply stunning for Class D. Midrange weight, tonality and overall soundstage stand out so far. Base is tight with the high end smooth and refined as others have stated.

We’ll see what happens after about 100 hours of break-in time on it. Its a keeper for sure.

For you measurement folks, looks like ASR just gave this amp a bad review:

https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/premium-audio-mini-gan-5-review-stereo-amplif...

Checked out that review thread. Not a place I’ll be frequenting. Ugh!

With a few more evenings of listening time, a few more observations. Bass and dynamics are really superb. Both those elements got slightly better with playing time. I find this amp quite reveling and true to recording quality.

What I find strange is that lead voice tracks often appear too far back in the sound stage and certain instruments like a piano, lack a bit of the weight expected from a good class A/B SS amp.

I moved the gain from mid to low with no discernable difference is sound quality. Nothing that cranking up the volume could not address. No problems whatsoever mechanically (on/off, warm-up time, disconnecting and reconnecting cables, etc.).

This amp does a lot of thing really well. Nipping at the heals of good Class A/B. I would not say it surpasses it.  But does kick the crap out of previous Class D I’ve used.

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....

@maw8c Any update on your impressions of the amp?

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

@evank this is unfortunate to hear about.  I just suggested a friend look into this amp to hook up to his Sprout 2 to give more power and have better sound.  He’s looking into the latest Magnapans (around $1k- I forget which model)

I’m really interested in a 5 channel GAN amp for home theater if anyone knows of one (preferably reasonably priced)  ClassD said a while back they might make one, but haven’t seen any word about it.

 
 

@emailists 

I was hoping the problem could have been solved. Plenty of people are using these amps with no problems. I switched preamps and cables and still had a problem. My own amp back in the chain and no problems before or after. Let's hope they can figure it out. Bench testing would not work I don't think if it's intermittent. 

@soix Love the GaN Fets just couldn't give this one run through,sorry

@evank It might be helpful to describe your system in detail to understand the context in which you tried these amps.

@catluck 

I'll cut to the chase: some of the most musical amps I've heard in over 40 years in this wonderful pursuit.

I have to say that for a 11 year Audiogon member with 100's of transactions to make his first post ever saying how good the amplifier is really a high endorsement.

 

 

@celander 

What more can I say. The amps would go into protection mode for whatever reason. My systems detail is listed in my system page.

What types of preamps is everyone using?

This morning I put my order in for a Mini GaN 5 . They are on Black Friday sale, $735......I nearly bought a Hypex NCore 252MP then I stumbled upon the whole GaN FET thing......Very interesting! I recently built an ICE 200wch amplifier from Parts Express as shown on Toid’s YouTube channel. A very inexpensive way to get your feet wet with class D. It’s a very nice amp, but has some shortcomings in the upper midrange and highs when driving my Magnepan LRS speakers. I’m hoping this more advanced technology will be an improvement.

My other equipment is Node2I into a Gustard X16 DAC, Schiit Freya tube preamp and Pass Labs First Watt F5v2 or VTA Tubes4HiFi ST120 tube amp.....LRS, KEF LS50 Metas and Pensil 10 speakers as the mood moves me....

All of this and more on my web page www.rvbprecision.com

Should be a fun trip!

I've put in an order as well to try these out. Won't get them for a couple of weeks but it's worth the investment to see, I guess. I'm happy with my system but the raves I'm reading about on Audiocircle where Catluck started a 22 page thread on these Class D amps would seem to make it worth a try.