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?   
Ag insider logo xs@2xsoundhound

I'm very keen for some dust to settle on some issues, as I understand that despite class D being well established it currently seems to be in an acceleration phase.  How current is the release of AGD Tempo?  There are at least a couple recent threads exploring this topic in one way or another, and I anticipate a lot more.

So, while Legacy/ICE, AGD and others (even "budget") are well received, I'm at that point where I'm in no hurry but will be definately seeking and looking forward to have to make a choice at sometime in the foreseeable future.

Another issue for a lot of people, including myself, is that these objects of desire are generally only available in the United States of America, and perhaps Canada and a couple other places.  That reaches perhaps less than 10% of the worlds population.  I trust that the technology may be licensed out to other manufacturers for it to become more widely available.  

 

There are plenty of Purifi-based units in Europe: check out Nord, Apollon, Rouge [not Rogue], etc. To say nothing of Technics' products.

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. 

@twoleftears , I am also intrigued by the Starkrimson Ultra Stereo. I do not find much discussion about that amplifier. I am wondering if Marantz will at some point think of getting out a Purifi or GaN based amplifier.

@twoleftears 

Yes, thanks.  I am in the Oceania corner. Singapore dealer/s is the closest.  Still, another country which is not ideal.

This licencing thing I mentioned - yes, I mean to more "mainstream" credible brandnames that already have a wide distribution network already in place, without wishing to foreshadow anything.  A couple names are already appearing, that's good I think - this surely cannot remain in the realm of niche players, however defined.