What are your thoughts/opinions on the Orchard Audio Starkrimson Mono Ultra Premium

At Axpona earlier this year I listened to the Starkrimson stereo amp.  It was connected to an Orchard Audio PecanPi Plus.  The combo sounded clear with excellent separation and depth. I listened to a lot of systems that day, and the clarity of the Orchard Audio setup just resonated with me.

I own both an Orchard Audio PecanPi and a PecanPi Plus streamer and they both sound great.  The owner, Leo, provides great customer support and designs great sounding cost effective gear.  If you can live with the minimalist design parameters, Orchard Audio gear provides great value. I will be buying some of his amps soon.

I had the AGD Audions V2 in my system as reference. The orchard audio made me sell the AGD audions. I did a shootout between these amps on a number I speakers like magnepan LRS+, Harbeth 40.3, 30.3, zU Audio Soul 6, b&w 805d3 etc and found the starkrimsom to be better than the AGDs given everything else the same.

@maverick2108 Wow, that’s very interesting especially given the significant price difference.  Can you go into more detail as to what specifically the Orchard did better than the AGD?

@perkri If you were interested. Tune in 28:56 for the video clip where the host compares Fosi V3 Mono with 5000$ Naim Supernait 3 and 9000$ Canor AI 1.20.

@maverick2108 Wow, that’s very interesting especially given the significant price difference.  Can you go into more detail as to what specifically the Orchard did better than the AGD?

The AGD was my reference for >18 months and drove all the speakers I threw at it with authority and mid-range to rival some of the best tube amps. I picked up the starkrimson monos on a deal and was pretty surprised on how well they compared for 1/3rd of the price. I wasn't satisfied and took the amps on a roadshow with my friends and do a shootout at various rooms, speakers keeping the monoblocks and the preamp(benchamrk LA4) a constant. The AGD sounded thinner with high demand speakers like the Harbeth 40.3 and the B&W 802, 805 for example in the mid range and didn't have the nice airy high frequencies. The OA starkrimson monoblocks didn't break a sweat and sounded amazing all through the shootout. My friends and I were all surprised. I promptly put my Audions for sale and I am happy with the OA monoblocks. I will be upgrading to the Ultra premium monoblocks soon and will keep this small little V1 amps for a secondary system or HT.

Wonder if the power difference between the AGD Audions 100w vs Sharkrimson monoblocks 150w made the difference.