Analog sound. Having already established that all sound occurs in the analog domain to make the term 'analog sound' redundant, how best to profile the GaNM performance vs my class AB residents? With only four outlets in my Tai Hang DC blocker, comparisons involved not just cable swaps but power cycling. Given their transistorized outputs, with these amps that was quick work. On the virtual sales counter of Kinki's online shop, we part with $3'698 for my pair to bag a nice savings over Laiv's $4'494 ask. Still, these competitors position close enough to make this a relevant juxtaposition. Ditto for Kinki's 250W power rating. I'd be contrasting like with like to act as realistic proxy for actual shoppers. With a nod at Cap'n Obvious, the GaNM are rather smaller and lighter than the EX-B7 so win on cuteness and stowaway ease. The bigger amps retaliate with paralleled RCA/XLR inputs and winged terminals that are far more reliably hand-tightened. Poteito 'n' potaahto. Lastly, the Kinki amps with their big linear supplies are more susceptible to DC on the AC. And before you ask, I exploit the sub's cardioid dispersion for 100Hz and below. This effectively cancels the lateral room mode and minimizes the longitudinal mode. Two active PSI Audio bass traps in the front corners then cancel what the sub's radiation pattern doesn't. This  2.1 scheme creates far superior bass stoppage which is free from room blur. To gauge a review amp's bass performance, my precision active analogue crossover sports a remote-triggered 'bypass' switch. That sends the incoming full-range signal from the Sonnet Pasithea DAC straight to the speakers, thus eliminating the sub. It's why the Italian mono amps remained in the picture as shown next. Once 'bypass' had done its thing, the directional sub returned to duty. Why slum when you can studiously style it?

The amps on the dual 15" cardioid sub are Pascal-based Goldnote PA-10 Evo bridged to mono, one per woofer.

Given my earlier analog/digital musings, it feels more factual if my sonic commentary invokes cellulose/plastic x hi-tech multi-lam hard drivers. If you've contrasted a Spendor or Harbeth with a Mårten or Kharma speaker; a Børresen with a sound|kaos monitor; you've met two distinct aural aesthetics. The cellulose sorts are softer, warmer and thicker, the metallic/ceramic versions sharper, leaner and quicker. One generates more connective tissue, the other higher contrast. One prioritizes gentle density, the other more tacit clarity. The same distinction holds for many planarmagnetic headphone comparisons to classic dynamics of equivalent cachet. The planars are warmer and thicker. Depending on personal taste, alternate words can give the qualities of the aesthetic one likes less deliberate bias. If we mean to belittle it, clarity might become crispness, even matter-of-fact sharpness. Nobody can help having preferences. Hence access to multiple choices rules. Should you fall into the general cellulose driver camp, you'd prefer the GaNM. Their drawing of the musical scenery used a softer blurrier tip for lower resolution with thicker transients and weaker focus. Within a single musical bar after switching over, the EX-B7 intensified the clarity factor. Think cold spring water without the oily viscosity of the more tepid GaNM. Even Joe Smith dragged in right off the street would have noticed. Well before investigating knock-on effects on soundstaging or tonal balance, this quality of keener suchness for the Kinki amps and a less stepped-out manifestation for the Laiv was the key differentiator. The EX-B7 were more explicitly revealed. In my book that meant more advanced resolution.

If that reads wrong—'digital' amps sounding warmer and less focussed than class AB legacy circuits with slower linear power supplies—it runs us right back at outdated preconceptions. Whilst those may have been based on real precedents, the topic of voicing applies just as much to class D circuits as it does to all others. In the early days of repackaged switching OEM power modules, brands would alter the off-the-shelf board's factory tuning with their own input buffer. Just because an amp drove ICEpower didn't predict its tuning. The aforementioned EJ Sarmento was one designer who deliberately steered his ICE amps into a darker warmer chunkier milieu. Whilst it's been too long to get more specific, my response to today's Laiv amps places them far closer to the bygone Wyred4Sound vibe than Alberto Guerra's GaNTube types. Just because the latter share three letters with the Laiv turned out to predict nothing useful. Kinki specify their S/NR as better than 130dB A-weighted. Laiv list theirs at 95dB/200W [87dB/20W], no weighting given. Whilst I'm unsure whether these figures compare on the level, I point at this spec because the sonic difference did suggest a small-signal advantage for the EX-B7 significant enough to matter. This leads me straight to the second directly connected differentiator: upper harmonics. With the Kinki, timbres had more gloss, brilliance even the occasional bite. GaNM timbres were darker, matte and less modulated. This was about the homeopathic sphere of subtle overtones, not the primary sphere of 1-3kHz fundamentals. Those the Laiv tracked fully. The homeopathic sphere occupies four octaves above the fundamentals just to hit the 16th harmonic. It's where even more than for ambient retrieval, superior S/NR pays dividends. It exposes us more to how the high harmonics shift with a player's or singer's emphasis. Rather than steady fixed timbres, we notice how the best performers constantly vary their tone in subtle ways to become another means of expression like microdynamics and phrasing. On this score too the GaNM played it less close to the bone to be nearer what I call comfort sound. It prioritizes pleasantness and builds in some subjective distance to nearfield energetics and close-mic'd heat. It's also how my 1st-gen so pre-fazor Audeze LCD-2 planarmagnetics differ from the Raal 1995 Immanis ribbons. There are audiences for either gestalt; and many degrees between.

Without eventual corrective specs, aging eyes may relinquish some depth of field. In similar mellow fashion, the GaNM's more relaxed hold on micro detail meant less specific depth layering. True, that could be compensated by higher SPL to move the smallest details above the event horizon but the Kinki didn't requite it. This had no bearing on Laiv's bodacious left/right spread, only a minor wall-of-sound effect. The GaNM tuning of rounder transients and softer-edged image focus can be the perfect antidote for virtually over-damped transducers like my earlier petite Accuton towers. Whilst such pairings won't magically add resolution, they certainly will temper etch and thinness like a good costume designer dressing a somewhat haggard leading man in a padded flowing suit. Though popular perception won't expect it, Laiv's GaNM are tuned to play very nice indeed with hard modern membranes á la Albedo, Alare,  Børresen, Canton, Mårten, Monitor, Raidho & Bros. If you enjoy Zu's sound, the GaNM lean its chunky way on the amplifier side of things. It's also fair to call their mellower behaviour more relaxed, even organic. If that last word reads wrong again, we're simply running circles chasing presumptive tail. Laiv weren't just resourceful enough to author their own GaN-gain platform and matching SMPS. They exercised deliberation in how to voice the combo. What I read into it spells uncomplicated friendliness. Unlike fussy diva tunings which require expertise to master, Laiv's tuning is turnkey so set'n'forget. It needs no babysitting or handholding. With that picture of broad strokes done, let's inspect a few more run-on effects and special attractions. On that scenic tour, our first stop is the old adage that muscle amps of very low output impedance big up small speakers. Enter Boenicke's W5.