LSA Voyager GAN Amplifier

One trend I’ve noticed is that every time there is a so-called ’breakthrough’ in class D technology, folks are going gaga over it initially. It is proclaimed with much fanfare that ’class D technology is finally here,’ and how much better it is than class A and tubes and everything else under the sun. After a few months, the same posters have moved on to something different. I don’t mean to rain on anyone’s parade here, but this ’second coming of class D’ story has been repeated ad nauseam on this site and many others. I hope you can see why some of us are skeptical. There’s a reason that valves and class A, despite being heavy and inefficient, have stood the test of time.

As Mark Twain once said, ’the stories of my death are greatly exaggerated’ ... I will check back in 6 months again.

@jaymark Thanks for the explanation. It was certainly not my intention to question your credibility or judgment. If it came out that way, please accept my apology. My point was that often times the 'new toy' exuberance' or the so-called honeymoon phase gets the better of us. I know I'm certainly guilty of that. However, this might not be the case this time around. If and when LSA releases an integrated version, I might just take a bite to see what the fuss is about. I talked to Walter and he thinks an integrated amp based on GaN should be released towards the end of the year. I'm willing to dip my toes in the water ... once again.

What is the reason that all these companies are only releasing amplifiers based on GaN? Why no integrateds in the market yet?

@yyzsantabarbara I love the detailed comparisons that you are providing. It's especially refreshing to see such a balanced, impartial approach you take when describing what you're hearing. Reading your reviews, as well as OP's, I'm pretty convinced that I need to give class D/GaN another chance. Hopefully, companies start to release integrated amps based on GaN soon. From what I've read, we should see something toward the end of the year.

It sounds to me that the Voyager is giving your Coda, Benchmark, and Krell amps a run for the money. Considering that the Voyager is only $3k, this is quite an achievement.