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LSA Voyager GAN 350 Review (Stereo Amplifier)

Rate this amplifier:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 172 72.9%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 55 23.3%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 4 1.7%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 5 2.1%

  • Total voters
    236

enio nery

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they could have at the very least chose an IEC socket with power indicator.
 

pseudoid

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power indicator
"Lookie here, we are saving the customer buck-two-ninety-five by leaving the indicator out!"
Marketeers thinking would be that no one really needs an 'annoying' indicator, if it is a ClassD (PowerOnDemand) amp, anyways.
 

H-713

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The load dependance is what kills it for me. Seriously, even 1970s amps didn't have that characteristic. This thing really isn't going to like nonlinear loads, low impedance loads, or heavily reactive loads.

This is a rare case where I gave a headless. An MC2 MC series, QSC PowerLight or Bryston amplifier from the 90s will outperform this in nearly every way. The only real improvement this has made is in efficiency, which is (arguably) a minor concern for this application.

So I have to ask, what's the point? What makes this better than a Bryston (which are proven to be among the most reliable amps ever built)?
 

Mart68

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The load dependance is what kills it for me. Seriously, even 1970s amps didn't have that characteristic. This thing really isn't going to like nonlinear loads, low impedance loads, or heavily reactive loads.

This is a rare case where I gave a headless. An MC2 MC series, QSC PowerLight or Bryston amplifier from the 90s will outperform this in nearly every way. The only real improvement this has made is in efficiency, which is (arguably) a minor concern for this application.

So I have to ask, what's the point? What makes this better than a Bryston (which are proven to be among the most reliable amps ever built)?
I thought that too. You could get a used Bryston or Krell for that sort of money, you could probably get a Neurochrome.

This is too expensive and too shoddy to get a pass.
 

dguillor

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not relay, especially not cheap.
For relay loud and dynamic systems like PA we usually uses more than one amplifier.
Amplifiers built with Hypex modules, Icepower modules or MA12070 ICs beat any class AB amplifiers for price and performance.

For PA systems professional class D amplifiers, like Crown XLS, provide amazing power per dollar.
 

Yevhen

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Interesting how distortion keeps rising and clipping is rather soft. As they state, this indicates low amount of negative feedback.
I think distortion is coming from the ferrite coils (filter) at the output. Unfortunately, the feedback loop does not cover the coils. Hypex and Purifi use the overall feedback (sense after the filter) and correct that distortion.
 

chucky7

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After reading this review, a friend of mine who ordered this amp and has yet to received it emailed LSA. Below is LSA's reply:

"We have not ever heard from these guys about an amp that was obviously wired incorrectly. It would seem to be common practice to call a manufacturer when you look at an amp with an obvious issue. This seems to be common practice with these people. They seem to be more about "I got ya". I have had 3 other quality manufacturers call me with the same complaint.

It is interesting that they only measure and don't listen to products. I thought it was the sound that matter?? I know of no other audio publication that does not listen to the products they evaluate.

We know about the other measurement issues they report but felt that like a lot of high end products it is the sound that counts. Our users seem to feel the same way and all love the amp. The GaN amp has amazing mids and highs that are extremely tube-like.

In addition, whoever the customer was who loaned the amp to them must have only used it with RCA's as a 9dB channel imbalance is clearly audible and you would have to be deaf not to hear that. We have not heard from any customer about a channel imbalance issue so we are not sure if this entire thing is a setup.

I have now sold 50 amps and customer feedback has been exceptional. They all love the amp. I have attached some user feedback. These are real listeners.

Again, I make no excuses for the wiring issue and it is entirely on our supplier and us. However, I am virtually certain that your amp is wired correctly and sounds great.

We typically do not offer trails on our products but have given a 30 day trial with a 15% restocking charge to a few skeptical US customers and have yet to take an amp back. I would offer you the same deal with the International freight as well.

Walter"

The plot thickens... o_O :facepalm: :eek:
 

pseudoid

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...I would offer you the same deal with the International freight as well...
That is a kind gesture but when competition is very stiff and ASR members take no prisoners: The proverb about "one bad apple spoils the barrel" raises it ugly head. Regardless even if we can blame it on the ethylene release… and/or internal QA issues.
 

Lambda

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It is interesting that they only measure and don't listen to products. I thought it was the sound that matter?? I know of no other audio publication that does not listen to the products they evaluate.
I can not believe this is seriously a company replay to a customer.

You should go ahead and aks then what part of the amp was actually engineered in house and how they justify the pricing.

I mean all they do is buy Modules put them in a box an wire them wrong
 

Xii-Nyth

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GaN transistors are really meant for very high voltage switching and not really meant to be accurate, unless I'm thinking of GaO... either eay if they wanted to use something fancy and still have a higher power output than silicon why not use silicon carbide?

I'm not by any means educated in this subject but Ive seen a radar chart comparing them all and that seems the most veratle, instead of have spikes in certain properties for specialized use cases (electrostatic headphones?)
 

pseudoid

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Some are betting the family-farm on GalliumNitride for EV high voltage/current switching.
The Ron for GaN is in milliOhms (even better than SiC).
LSA' attempt at applying it for use in audio power amps should be commended but...
Maybe some future design improvements will make it the cat's meow for high power amps.
I am filing it under the Beta category (changed vote)
 

Lambda

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I'm not by any means educated in this subject
Then why make this statement?
GaN transistors are really meant for very high voltage switching and not really meant to be accurate,


GaN devices have about 1/10 oft the gate charge per RDSon.
this enables faster switching with less power.
If you don't switch them faster there is no inherent benefit of using GaN fets in old designs

But GaN enables new designs.
Increased switching frequency's would enable better filter and small inductors and maybe air core inductors (that are inherently linear)


The Ron for GaN is in milliOhms (even better than SiC).
Both processes can be made as low resistance as they want.
The interesting metric is how mush gate charge dose it "cost" to drive the resistance down.
 

PJ2000

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If turns out that both the LSA Voyager GAN 350 and the Peachtree GaN400 amplifiers use the same modules from/designed by Elegant Audio Solutions. While both have what seems to be different power supplies, the main amplifier board looks identical. The board uses the GaN Systems HEMT and Elegant Audio Systems is listed as one of their partners. If you go to the GaN Systems website, they have reference boards and detailed information about their reference designs. If you look at the pictures in the reference designs, you will see that those also are from Elegant Audio Solutions.

I had a chance to listen to the Peachtree GaN400 version of this and it at least worked as you would expect out of the box. I (subjectively) had the opportunity to compare the NAD 2200 (upgraded components), GaN400, McIntosh MA252 and the Purifi Eval1. Being an engineer myself and a believer in numbers I have to say that I have bought several components including the NAD 2200 after seeing the great measurements on ASR and was firmly in the camp of that it would be impossible for me to hear a difference in real life with any of these components. I have to say that I was wrong. In my listening tests I found that consistently of the 4, I picked the NAD 2200 as the worst sounding and the Purifi Eval1 as the best sounding with the GaN400/MA252 somewhere in between consistently. My general observations are:

1. The Purifi amp has a level of clarity, detail and high frequency response that I have never heard on any other amplifier including the Benchmark ABH2. The LSA wasn't bad, but didn't really compare to the Purifi. At about 1/3rd the price, you could buy 3 of the Eval1's for the price of the LSA.

2. You need speakers that can resolve the detail. I found that you need speakers that can resolve the details such as Magnepan LRS, Magico S5 vs. a couple of other speakers that I tried that I just couldn't hear any differences.

Last week a couple of friends and I did some blind testing using the Purifi, MA252 and the ABH2 connected to Topping D90SE and Magico S5MKII. One of these days I will post the results of what we did and how, but if you were going to buy something and you aren't able to try out a bunch of amplifiers, buy the Purifi, it is unlike any other amplifier that I have heard and it is the cheapest of the bunch.

Corrected: MA252 not MC252.
 
Last edited:

Xyrium

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This had to be some high school kid's first electronics project. It's screams amateur. I mean, half of these amps are simply "assemblies" now, and they couldn't even get that right.
 
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Xii-Nyth

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This had to be some high school kid's first electronics project. It's screams amateur. I mean, half of these amps are simply "assemblies" now, and they couldn't even get that right.
Holy
1
 

Phorize

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In this a case of ‘here one day, GaN the next’? :facepalm:
 
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pma

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Last week a couple of friends and I did some blind testing using the Purifi, MC252 and the ABH2 connected to Topping D90SE and Magico S5MKII. One of these days I will post the results of what we did and how, but if you were going to buy something and you aren't able to try out a bunch of amplifiers, buy the Purifi, it is unlike any other amplifier that I have heard and it is the cheapest of the bunch.
Would you please describe in detail the method of your blind test - level matching and randomizing the order of amplifiers. Thank you.
 

sarumbear

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GaN transistors are really meant for very high voltage switching and not really meant to be accurate, unless I'm thinking of GaO... either eay if they wanted to use something fancy and still have a higher power output than silicon why not use silicon carbide?

I'm not by any means educated in this subject but Ive seen a radar chart comparing them all and that seems the most veratle, instead of have spikes in certain properties for specialized use cases (electrostatic headphones?)
Indeed you are not educated in the subject. GaN transistors are used for diverse voltage levels.

Anker who became famous by offering iPhone chargers that charge faster use GaN transistors and fit a 30W PSU/charger inside the same size case as the 5W Apple PSU/charger. They are USB and output 5V.
 
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