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On a warm, summer Sunday afternoon in July, we met at the California Historical Radio Society's "Radio Central Museum" in Alameda, CA, to showcase four GAN-based monoblock amplifiers, ranging from the $2500/pr. Orchard Audio Skarkrimson to the $18,999/pr. AGD Gran Vivance Mk.IV.

The event was well attended, with 34 people registering. Each guest received a pen and a tally sheet to record their impressions and thoughts. The goal of this event was to let our audience listen to amplifiers at different price points and determine whether any notable differences could be heard among the amps.

The system used for this event included the following: 

Source media: Local files on a USB stick
The Snow Maiden: Dance of the Tumblers, Minneapolis Symphony (FLAC 16/44.1)
Can't We Be Friends, Ella and Louis (DSD)
Waltz for Debby (Take 2), Bill Evans Trio (FLAC 16/44.1)
Money, Pink Floyd (DSD)

Equipment:
Ascend Acoustics Tower Speakers
Meitner MA3i DAC/Streamer
OnFilter CleanSweep EMI Filter

GAN Amplifiers:
Orchard Starkrimson 25 Premium: $2,500/Pr.
LAIV Harmony GaNM: $5,200/Pr.
Atma-Sphere Class D: $6,320/Pr.
AGD Gran Vivace MKIV: $18,999/Pr.

Specification sheets for all four amps showcased

Our listening process began with the LAIV Harmony amp. We listened to four short segments of each of our reference tracks in this order: The Snow Maiden, Can't We Be Friends, Waltz for Debby, and Money. We repeated this sequence with the Orchard Stackrimson, then moved on to the AGD Gran Vivance, then lastly we listened to the Atma-Sphere Class D.

We finished with a quick Q&A survey of the group, where attendees had a lively discussion and shared their observations from the listening session, which included a notable mention of the ribbon tweeter system possibly being too harsh.

Conclusion

In the end, all attendees enjoyed the event and we were grateful for the opportunity to hear all the products. More importantly, most listeners in our audience were able to detect various sonic differences between all of the amps, which ultimately satisfied the primary goal of this event. From impressions collected from participants here are a few things that stood out from each. 

For additional event insights, including attendee comments, discussion summaries and more, visit our new Foundation Events forum and look for the 2026 Class D Amp Summary and 2026 Class D Amp Discussion threads in the forum.

Each vendor's amplifier had its champions among the attendees, with each listener expressing myriad reasons for their preference, ranging from bass quality to resolution and separation to best value for the money. We hope to continue bringing events like this to our community so they can experience firsthand the wide variety of audio products available to enthusiasts, and lastly, we thank all the manufacturers and members who provided equipment for our showcase.

A special shout out to Alberto Guerra of AGD Productions and Leo Ayzenshtat of Orchard Audio for lending us their awesome high-end amplifiers for the showcase.