Seems DBT is far more right than wrong. It's somewhat puzzling to see condemnation and/or justification for denying the validity of the GanFet solution by those having no informed opinion. Conservatism acts to protect the status quo and there's arguable utility in that position. But here the GanFet solution, NOT MOSFET Class D, has met with universal praise. Some might not be ready to abandon their tubes and/or SS but nobody, thus far, who has an INFORMED opinion, has leveled any criticism of the GanFets. Interestingly, it appears that many of the contributors to this thread are older guys. Not surprised in the least to see resistance to "new." How can something so small, cheap, etc., be any good? I don't suppose it matters to remind that group that technology, in general, following Moore's Law, has been getting more powerful, smaller, and manifesting greater performance. It's a lack of imagination to fail to understand that these little boxes could outperform their massive A/AB competitors. That's what's so shocking when you first hear these amps. Their refinement, presence, clarity, bass and tonal purity are superior to SS class A/AB and/or tube, at least in my systems. Consider a recent post from Tom Rost to me,
"Actually, our first GaN amps used the HUGE linear power supply. Keep in mind, besides the linear power supply, it also used a large toroid transformer weighing over 8 pounds. The cases were CNC machined. Attached photos... inside view is just rough prototype. What happened after that is when designing the mini GaN, I was able to pull the same performance as the bigger amp and at less than half the price. It just didn't make sense to go ahead with the larger amps as prices would start at more than double the Mini GaN for the same or possibly less performance. We use a newly developed LLC converter in the mini GaN with some newer technology that allows us to get the excellent performance in a very small package."
Hardly "tom, dick, harry" stuff. Further, as far as any "tom, dick, harry" engaging in class D start-ups: 1) who cares and why? Either the product justifies its existence/price by commensurate performance or it doesn't; and 2) products that are designed with unique topology/architecture are not "tom, dick, harry" products. Class D Audio, Orchard Audio, Atma-Sphere, as examples, apparently designed their proprietary circuits. This is not about throwing a Madison Sound or EPC board into a chassis and calling it a GanFet amp. These designers deserve a chance and, perhaps, even a hint of generosity before being blindly condemned with blanket assertions like "tom, dick, harry" doing DIY kit.
At the end of the day, boomers, are aging out. If the audio market is to survive one doesn't need to be much of a visionary to see that GanFets provide the way forward. As I wrote earlier, my daughter and her peer group of music lovers, are put-off by the old, and by now really old school, heavy, ponderous, blah, blah, blah, products virtually indistinguishable from those of the last 50 years. GanFets will bury MOSFETS and the old school guys that want to keep their MOSFET kit, well, that's fine. The rest of us will walk out of the desert to the promised land.
