LSA Voyager GAN 350 versus Merrill Audio Element Amps or AGD Grand Vivace and Vivace Amps


The Underwood HiFi website compares the Voyager to far more expensive Class D amps costing $32,000 to $7,500 - presumably Merrill Audio Element Amps and AGD Vivace and Grand Vivace amps.  Has anyone directly AB'ed the Voyager amp to any of the Merrill Audio Element amps or AGD Grand Vivace or Vivace amps in a system with which they are familiar?   
soundhound

Showing 2 responses by soundhound

Thank you rc22 for pointing out this post by Chorus regarding the Voyager and Merrill amps.  It appears that the Voyager is a good value, but as we all know, the cost benefit curve of high end electronics reach a point of diminishing returns.  The value of differences between very good and excellent to outstanding audio components are often viewed differently by different individuals and may be more apparent in some systems.  I do not know if anyone has done such an AB comparison, but, if it has, it might help to define how close a current high value Class D amp comes to the best currently available Class D amps.  

In addition to the Purifi based amps mentioned by twoleftears, promising new Class D  GAN FET amps have recently gone on sale from Atma-Sphere  (100 wpc, $5300) and AGD, i.e. the Tempo amp (100 wpc, $5500).  New models will soon be available from other manufacturers , i.e. the Wyred 4 Sound Aura amp (200 wpc, est. price $3,000), a higher powered version of the Atma-Sphere amp (est. 200 wpc, ? price) and the LKV Power 3 amp the (175 wpc, $3500) .  While the the LSA Voyager is an excellent value at $2,500 - 3,000 providing 350 WPC at 8 ohms, the differences between the Class D amps under $6,000 and higher priced Class D as well as higher priced class A and AB amps may be narrowing. If your speakers are compatible with the Benchmark AHB2, it can be remarkably good with transparency rivalling the best in both stereo and mono configurations at a not unreasonable price.