Listening to the Orchard Audio Starkrimson monos. Contrasting with the Class D Audio monos. Seems as though both present uber-clarity and transparency with profound bass. There's something about GanFets; it's a kind of refined, elegant quiet. The proverbial black background. Like the Class D Audio monos, the Orchards are dead quiet in operation. No discernable hiss, noise, buzz with ear touching M3 tweeter cage. Excellent voice separation (clarinet, bass, guitar, etc.). Soundstage is WIDE with perhaps foreshortened depth (which could certainly be the fault of my setup/room and probably is). There's a lilting quality in piano notes that is sooooo satisfying. No absence of attack or decay but just a delicacy in presentation.... even when you listen louder than usual, the scaling in tone and dynamics remains balanced and, well, just musically consistent with what you'd expect to hear from the real thing. This dynamic scaling/tonal consistency was immediately apparent with trumpet/fleugel. And I know because I grew up with a father who played trumpet during my entire childhood. I KNOW the sound of trumpet and its ability to go from soft to LOUD, like instantly. And whether Miles, Chet, Fats, Enrico, Thomas, etc., trumpets can scale dynamically... But these amps (both Orchard and Class D) hold the line without ever crossing over into strident. Again, so satisfying. And they do it with a tonal purity that you just have to hear. The Orchard units weigh 2 lbs. (absent outboard power supply) and they sound absolutely amazing. They're sitting on top of a pair of 100 lb. 845 monoblocks which I have not fired up since getting these GanFet units. I have no desire to. And that's really the tell. Generally, my habit has been to pursue new/different when I felt l just wasn't getting what I was after in sound quality. Maybe for the first time in 45 years of listening, I have no impetus to move on from GanFets. Could change, yes. But there is definitely something new, crazy satisfying going on here. Can't make any statement yet re: which are better - Orchard or Class D? The Class D chassis, is to my sensibility, is more elegant and aesthetically pleasing. I'm not a huge fan of the Orchard outboard power supply but it's no big deal. Listening to "Healing Power" containing sax, guitar and bass. Extraordinary. The M3's sound better than ever. FWIW.
