jeffhenning
Member
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2020
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Hey, it was inevitable that something was going to supplant silicon as the material for transistors, audio or otherwise.
So now we have gallium nitride…GaN. All good and fine, but, other than for marketing, there is really no reason for any consumer of audio equipment to get the least bit excited about equipment made with it.
Going through all of the electronic equipment that gets tested here that winds up being in the upper echelon of the ratings, none (to my knowledge) use GaN transistors. The units aren’t ridiculously expensive either and they’re world class, SoTA, etc.
If using GaN technology was going to make them half the price with the same or better performance, sure, I’d see the excitement. Unfortunately, though, that is not the case.
It really is nothing but another buzzword used to sell equipment. I’ve been an audio nut for almost 50 years and the marketing still really hasn’t changed at all.
So now we have gallium nitride…GaN. All good and fine, but, other than for marketing, there is really no reason for any consumer of audio equipment to get the least bit excited about equipment made with it.
Going through all of the electronic equipment that gets tested here that winds up being in the upper echelon of the ratings, none (to my knowledge) use GaN transistors. The units aren’t ridiculously expensive either and they’re world class, SoTA, etc.
If using GaN technology was going to make them half the price with the same or better performance, sure, I’d see the excitement. Unfortunately, though, that is not the case.
It really is nothing but another buzzword used to sell equipment. I’ve been an audio nut for almost 50 years and the marketing still really hasn’t changed at all.