SS amp mosfet 'haze' - ever experienced this?


Tried a new amp in my system on the weekend: the well-reviewed Gamut D200 mkIII (partly based on HP's great review), a single-mosfet SS design. At the dealers' place, it sounded great (speakers were Wilson Benesch Discovery, an isobarak, lower-efficiency design). I can't use a tube amp right now (unfortunately!) due to pending child and the system is on a LOT (2-ch/HT mix), so am looking for the most full-bodied SS amp I can find (prefer fully balanced design to match my modded SF Line 3 pre).

Well, to my surprise, the amp did NOT work out as well at my place. My speakers are 97db Coincident Total Victory. Yes, it was full-bodied, but I was definitely aware of this haze, or veiling around each note. I have a friend who designs amplifiers, and he said that this is inherent of mosfet designs. I called Israel (Coincident) and he was not surprised that I only heard this once I got back to my place, due to the high resolution abilities of my speaker vs the speakers at the dealer's. I guess I will be sticking with my Sim Audio W-3, as it is much 'cleaner' on my system (given that I must stay with SS). Too bad, 'cause my Sim W-3 definitely has the edge in clarity, but the Gamut was a touch more full-bodied.

Has anyone else experienced this 'haze' with a mosfet-based design? I admit, those with higher-efficiency speakers like mine (97db/14ohm) probably are NOT using higher-powered mosfet designs anyways, but I would like to know how others feel about mosfet designs and this issue I had.
sutts

Showing 5 responses by cdc

Agree about chip amps being great but don't think they have the drive of bi-polar solid state. They just can't pass that much current.
Digital and chip amps are not the same thing. Look at measurements and digital switching amps (Class T or whatever) and you will invariably see a lot of HF hash or filtering to try to get rid of it. A well designed chip amps has neither.
Thanks Sutts, interesting comparison to the First Watt as that also looks like a good design concept.

Muralman1, from what I understand the definition of "chip amp" they are NOT digital as in switching power supply. They are analog amps where virtually the whole amp is on a single chip. Big difference in measured performance as chip amps don't have the HF hash of Bel-Cantos, Charlize, T-amps, etc.
Welcome to Audiogon, Michael and thanks for the post.
Hope you stick around. It's always nice to hear from people in the know.