My new review for The Absolute Sound comparing AGD GAN amps with BHK300’s

I’ve heard the AGD and they sounded good.

Are they worth the premium price compared to the competition? Have not directly compared so don’t know but having heard many Class Ds including several I own currently, I’d say anything is possible.

Making the circuit look like a vacuum tube is a nice touch both from an aesthetics perspective and surely helps up the appeal to those attached to vacuum tubes that might otherwise be less likely to move on, so an adept marketing move there for sure. Vacuum tubes fascinated me as a child and still do. They are all glowy and I still think they are way cool looking in a 1950’s sci-fi kind of way  

Mapman those AGD for those who can afford yes worth it. I can’t answer the competition, I have not heard them.

Hey thanks all for watching and the kind words!  It’s gotten almost 10K views since yesterday which isn’t a lot for YouTube but a good amount for TAS’s channel which they are still building.  If anyone wants to post the link in other forums they belong to, that would be great. 

Its perfectly valid to compare amps of different classes of operation.

Regarding the 'unobtanium' GaNFET, I understand your skepticism- I reacted the same way. The designer claims he uses a device 'designed for audio'. As you know, GaNFET's main advantage, their raison d'etre, is for switching so of course any GaNFET could be used but if you wanted to optimize one for a class D audio amplifier it would have a low output capacitance. That was something we considered when we chose the parts we use as well. So we can assume that is what is being used. That is the extent of being 'designed for audio'.
 

This is hilarious, actually!!

If I use a switching semiconductor to switch at 2 mHz, are you going to call that device an “audio output” device???

Thats what these GaN devices are, and that’s how they’re used here! That’s how Class D amps work!  These devices are no more “audio devices” than the devices used to control industrial induction motors, or used to control motors in EVs!! Fact is, both GaN and SiC were developed for exactly these reasons: Efficient control of induction and DC motors!!!

This is a total scam to say these devices are “audio” rated, or even operate at audio frequencies!

Peoples’ lack of understanding of Class D amps makes for easy victims of false advertising!!

 

soix

8,602 posts

04-17-2024 at 01:34am 

@wolfie62 Not really sure what you’re saying.  GaN FETs are clearly different from MOSFETs, and the performance advantages of the former have allowed amp designers to not only more seriously rival traditional amps but are now starting to surpass them.  When a company like Atmasphere makes a GaN amp that the designer in most ways prefers to his MUCH pricier OTL tube amps that’s pretty strong evidence that something significant has changed.  Again, not really sure what your point is here.
 

See my post above. That’s my point!