$11,500/pair

Too good to be true? Compact (both can easily fit on one rack shelf), attractive, lightweight, cool-running, high-power, fantastic-sounding monoblock amps in the mid-price range? Nope, it is true. And how fantastic they sound, indeed, competing on almost equal footing sonically with the low-power, purist, single-ended Class A monoblocks which I built. These are the finest-sounding amps I have ever had in my home, not counting my own SEs.

They are a Class D design utilizing special high-speed, audio-grade GAN transistors. I have read that Alberto Guerra, founder and CEO (and head designer), is the only one who has any of these particular GAN devices. He bought the entire lot of them when they were newly developed by a large company. His circuit designs might be better than most too; he is a semiconductor engineer who has been refining Class D technology since the 1990s.

At 150W into 8 ohms, and 300W into 4, these little mighty mites can drive most speakers to high levels. The GAN amp section can be upgraded for a reasonable fee when a new model is released. And new in the Duet is an all-GAN power supply, as well, part of why it sounds so amazing. (355)