Thank you for all of the responses so far. 

@verdantaudio I agree there is no objective best amp. I’m asking about peoples’ preferences and the reasons they landed there. I am not hoping to get a unified alignment on this thread, but get broad knowledge about what’s available and how they differ. Which AGD amps did you compare to the Atma - were they the Audion? Would you characterize them as rolled off on top, or just sweet? My brother has the Audion, though he lives too far for me to be able to try them in my system to compare. 

@jeffseight To my knowledge, Aavik uses Purifi, not GaN. I agree they are some of the best Class D, and I have a high affinity for them. I own Borresen 02 as we speak. 

@markmuse Interesting to hear that you find the Tempo to be less dark than the Atma as others comment that the Audion are darker than the Atma. This is helpful to understand what might be gained by moving up to the Tempo. I’d be curious to hear of anyone who has compared the AGD Audion to their higher offerings and share their impressions. I personally have heard the Atma monos at shows and have found them to be brighter / more detailed than many non-GaN solid state amps. I’m guessing that Ralph voices the monos to be more like his OTLs, of which I have owned two (MA-1 and S-30). 

@yyzsantabarbara Thanks for the impressions between the GAN1 and GAN400. I wasn’t aware Ric Schultz was offering mods. I’ll look into that as well  

Keep the comments rolling, it’s all helpful!

@blisshifi 

If I remember a conversation with Alberto correctly the Tempo is simply a stereo version of the Audion, probably with a common but beefier power supply. I have two of them to use as mono blocks that also bi-amp. 

If the Audion's and Tempo's are rolled off in the HF, I might now be able to hear it. I can't hear anything over 10k. But I think there was a model upgrade in the Audion at some point. Maybe wrong, but if so that might account for different perceptions.

I don't think Rick Shultz is modding GaN amps anymore. I had an LSA Voyager I was going to send to him, but he said he wasn't doing it any more. That was a year or two ago.

You might contact Alberto at AGD. He replies to emails to his site.

Aavik uses the Pascal modules. I currently have Hypex based Ncore NC400 monos with a BAT VK-40 preamp, I would like to upgrade to either the new Hypex Nilai 500 or the Aavik I-280. Very difficult to find comparisons. 

Technics Grand Class Integrated Amp

@markmuse Thanks for the details. 

@greg_f Thanks for the correction on Aavik. Are Pascal modules a GaN design or no? I didn’t think they were. They sound great regardless.