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

Very good question you ask.

I have the voyager on a very good power cord, spring pods and 10lbs of weight on top.  I am very pleased, but have spent no time with any higher priced class D amps—GaN-fet or other.

In case you didn’t see it, https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/lsa-voyager-gan-amplifier?page=10
It was reported (by Chorus, I think) that a guy who replaced his Pass Labs amp with a Voyager spent time with Merrill Amps that cost many multiples of the Voyager.  That guy thought the Merrill sounded a little better in some ways.

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.  

I had the Voyager and in stock form it was not as good as the CODA #8 which I also own. I should add that another person that did the AB comparison of the stock Voyager and CODA #8, on my system, liked the Voyager more than the CODA #8. He was a musician and audio hardware vendor so maybe he has a better ear. I got the Voyager modded by EVS ($500) and the clarity of the unit approached Benchmark AHB2 levels (I also own). For me, the mod really transformed the unit to CODA #8 levels, but with less powerful bass. The Voyager seemed a bit more clear than the CODA #8 after the mods. I recently heard a CODA #16 with the CODA 07x preamp and it was better than everything else mentioned above.

The modded Voyager was not that great with my RAAL SR1a headphones (neither was the AHB2). So I sold it to keep the CODA #8 with my CODA 07x preamp. I recently got a Parasound A21+ for my RAAL SR1a and CODA 07x preamp (preamp has 2 XLR outputs). The Parasound is not as good as the Voyager but sonically aligns better with the RAAL SR1a. It is warmer with more bass, but not as clear.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/agd-gran-vivace-monoblock-amplifier

Hifinews had a report for AGD gran vivace couple weeks ago. I do found that the lab report numbers doesn't seem to be good, but personally haven't had the chance to hear it yet.