Vibe,
Some clarifications:
The Voyager I have is stock.
A friend just sold his Pass Labs 30.8 Amp and bought the Voyager.
I use a Pass Labs INT25 which is fairly close to the same as the 30.8
so his move caught my attention.
My setup consists of:
-Late 80's Tannoy FSM monitors with XOs rebuilt by Danny Richie.
-Innuos Zen MK3 Streamer/burner/storage
-Audio Mirror Tubadour DAC with reclocker upgrade.
-Uptone Audio EtherRegen
On loan:
- Wyred for Sound Preamp-fully balanced as is the Voyager.
- XLR cables.
My room is mid-sized with good acoustic treatments.
I listen from 55-70db only.
Mostly Blues & Vocals.
My comparisons have not been against other $3,000 Class D amps
with say 200+ wpc. That would have been optimum for a legit comparison but no one I know near me owns one.
I have been told by the same friend who bought the Voyager that he
has listened to the Merrill Audio GaN Amps. He felt Merrill Amps did
have slightly better SQ than the LSA product.
However at $15k-$25k for the Merrill vs. $3k for the LSA let's hope so. He could afford either and he chose the Voyager.
My goal is simply to find out if I prefer the Voyager over my Pass INT25.
The other amp I compared it to is a Lejonklou Boazu INT-$4k.
The Voyager had not yet been fully burned in at that time so
I must discard that result.
I also own a Line Magnetic 218IA Integrated Amp, EL84,
7wpc, flea power tube amp. I prefer the Voyager's SQ
over than the Line Magnetic.
Again it is not a fair/even comparison.
The Voyager I have now has 350+ hours on it. In my experience it
needed 200+ to reach 95% of it optimum SQ. Like most of my gear
it produced perhaps 70% of it final SQ right out of the box.
I am still performing more comparisons so I am not ready to make
my final comments but can say:
-My senior sound engineer recording studio friend brought over his own symphony recording on CD. He is intimately familiar with it naturally. He liked the Voyager overall very well and felt it presented his work
very well.
My initial findings:
1. The Voyager has great presence.
2. The Voyager has strong Bass
3. The Voyager is simply fun to listen to.
4. It will be a hit with Rock & Roll lovers Bi-ampers, and JBL type
speaker owners should investigate it.
5. For Two Channel Home Theatre I would doubt it can be beat.
To say Underwood HiFi has hit a walk-off home run with this
new product is not an exaggeration.
Bring on your insensitive speakers with low ohm ratings.
Bring on your larger rooms.
Bring on your Bass loving listeners.
Bring on your home theater, 2 channel sound folks.
This Amp may make a lot music listeners into music lovers.
As with Ulysses the Voyager may be your siren's song!
