This is a review written by Terry Ellis July 2024.

For my video review please see my YouTube channel link here

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Built to kill giants

A review for a stereo power amplifier, even a very intersting one like the Galion TS A75 should be quite a short and sweet affair because how much is there to say about a just stereo power amplifier, however its never that simple is it.

This Galion TS A75 stereo power amplifier is the creation to some extent of the HiFi YouTuber Thomas and Stereo who you may know. Now for clarification purposes I don’t know Thomas personally, this is the second product of his I have reviewed but I want to clarify again there is no personal relationship here so there is no conflict of interest.

Important to scratch beneath the surface

The Galion TS A75 or just the A75 from now on is quite an old school looking stereo power amplifier, reminiscent maybe of Krell amplifiers from the 90s with the big heat sinks on either side.  I think she looks ok but is unlikely to win any beauty contests.  The build quality while easily good enough, its solid and heavy enough at over 17kg and all the metal used here is impressively thick. The front plate is thick too which I like but the A75 is not a lavish or very luxury feeling amplifier which I am absolutely fine with if it means I am going to get more of my money spent on sound quality aka more money spent on the inside.

How much money are we talking here $1495 + shipping costs which in 2024 is a very reasonable amount of money for a good power amplifier if the A75 is that good. That’s the interesting bit because Thomas has called the A75 a Giant Killer, the title that is of course that’s the most appealing thing.  Something that is cheaper but still better than the more expensive options but its also is potentially an extremely misleading because what giants are we talking about here? I don’t blame Thomas for praising his own wares but to be honest I always totally ignore claims like this and I try and focus on the important things.  What does it do, what are the pro’s and con’s, what does it sound like and I do I think that sound will appeal to me and work in my system?  All those questions that matters more than any hyperbole that you will see especially on YouTube, because that is the game we all have to play.  Do’t hate the player hate the game.

However Thomas may well be right so I wanted to test the bold claim as I have 2 amplifier “Giants” here for the Galion to try and kill and it doesn’t stand a chance or does it?

Sonic muscle or beauty

For power the A75, no surprise really can deliver 75 watts per channel into 8 ohms and then 100 watts into 4 ohms and straight away that tells you a little bit here about where the A75’s limit might be.  Generally the best power amplifiers can double their power from 8 ohms down to 2 ohms and below so they can handle more demanding speaker loads better. I have one here that does that the Gryphon Essence but it costs £20,000 so that is another difference to consider of course.

Thankfully most modern speakers that owners are likely to want to use with the A75 wont be that demanding and I have tested two the Revival Audio Atalante 4 and the KEF R11 Meta. Both have a similar sensitivity 89 and 90db respectively and both are 4 ohms dropping to 3.2 ohms so that should have been a good test for the A75s metal, with a comparison to the Gryphon which sets the reference point and also a comparison with the NAD M23 another very highly regarded power amplifier.

Quickly looking at the rear, the A75 has a sensible layout and I appreciate how spaced out how everything is. This shows some thought has gone into the design and there is the option for using either singled ended or balanced input connections and I appreciated that. One thing I am not massively keen on is the illuminated blue power on off button, its fine to use but I think the led brightness is a just bit much for the very understated overall design. But it’s a minor niggle of course.

I popped the lid to take a look inside, it was cool to see custom Galion stickers on the transformers of which there are two, one for each channel. This was great to see and they are reasonable sized 200w each but they are not the dinner plate sized over a KW transformers you get in the Gryphon. There are a lot capacitors being used here too, twenty of them and they are pretty big ones. It seemed like they are mostly ELNA caps which is a good brand from what I know, very little I will admit. On the website it states 200,000 microfarads total capacitance which is a lot, but again comparing to the gryphon it has 440,000 but do remember the price difference, so again 200,000 is not to be sniffed at for this price.

The familiar Galion character

My first listening impressions with the A75 were that it reminded me of my time with the Galion TS120SE tube amplifier I reviewed last year. Now of course that review was a few months ago so I am going from audio memory here but I had the TS120SE in my system for quite a long time and naturally I got very used to it and its general sound character. It must have stuck with me as I recognised the vibe pretty instantly. Thomas is responsible for the voicing of his amplifiers more than the technical design and the voicing is the selection of key components that all work but don’t sound the same and its the combination of them that crates the amplifiers voice or its character. I am guessing this is the sound Thomas likes and its quite distinctive and its there in both of the Galion amplifiers.

I think the first thing audiophiles will notice about the A75 is the softer more seductive sounding vocals it delivers. There is a bit more beauty and subtle detail to them than you expect from a solid state amplifier and I would say there is more subtlety and beauty than there is energy or immediacy about them.

The vocals I think are trying to be very audiophile and set back in the sound stage beyond the speakers and I enjoy that presentation but there is a trade off. It worked very well with the KEF R11 Meta, and well with the Revival Audio Atalante 4 but with both speakers the vocals in some music, in particular I am thinking of Colter Wall, Songs of the plains. I found the vocals to sound a little sucked out compared to the other amplifiers. The other two amplifiers put Colters gruff strong vocals more solid front and centre so the Galion presents the same music a little differently here.  However its not as stark difference in all music, this was just one of the more extreme differences I heard.

This is by all accounts part of the amplifiers deliberate voicing. Thomas told me about this so I do think it will stand out to every audiophile and I think it could split opinion depending on what you are used to and like. If a a tube amplifier has this voicing you can tweak it a bit by changing the tubes but of course you can’t do that solid state amplifier. I would say have a good think about this aspect before committing to the A75 because vocals are always critical and key to all music. In contrast think if your speakers are very close the front wall maybe it will be great for you to get some exaggerated sound stage depth effect to the vocals, but if you prefer a more immediate upfront sound this amplifier might not be for you as its looking to go the other way.

The treble Thomas told me is supposed to be raised a bit but if it is raised its only by a very slight amount. I don’t think you would notice it without a direct comparison to another amplifier or without someone like me telling you about it.  The treble delivery is obviously more sparkly than from the NAD M23 and it has got a little bit more sweeter character to it too. Like there is a little bit of treble bloom going on so the high frequency information has some character and that means it doesn’t irritate you by being too crispy sounding but its not as crisp and clear and specific as from the Gryphon. Overall the A75 delivers a good treble and I have nothing to complain about here.

The bass Thomas told me is intended to be big sounding and I assume he told me that as he knows I am a bass head compared to many and yes there is a very satusfying good amount of it. Listening to the A75 with the R11 Meta, speakers where the bass is so tight and can be quite start stop mechanical I could hear the A75 was adding some blooming or fattening of the bass notes and that worked well.  The A75 fleshed out the KEF’s bass giving them a warmer more pleasing character and rounded off the bass notes too for the betterment I feel. Interestingly and probably most impressive is the A75 added the bass character without losing any composure or a tight control over the bass. The bass stayed articulate and detailed so really all it did was add a bit of bass character that I liked a lot with the KEF’s so this is another detail that should stand out to audiophiles when you get into more serious listening.

The giants

Interestingly comparing the Galion bass to that from the NAD M23 with the KEF, the NAD thickened the bass of the KEF even more and made them sound more solid, especially in the middle of the sound stage, but noticeably less nimble and articulate. The more solid bass with more mid bass impact from the NAD worked better in some music even though I know “technically” the NAD was clouding the bass detail to some degree. When you put the big Gryphon on the KEF the bass has more energy and power and control than from both the Galion and NAD but the Gryphon has so much drive and control it puts the KEF on like a knife edge of bass detail and they can sound quite sterile. I think the KEF seem to want prefer some bass bloom well at least they do at this stage of their life, they are still relatively new although they have had a fair amount of hours put on them by the time of this review.

I know sound stage is important to Thomas and I found the Galion to deliver a very good sense of sound stage depth with the right music. The organisation of the music was impressive too with a good sense of overall three dimensionality, but being honest the NAD M23 did some things better here. With the NAD I felt like the left to right sounds were a little more present and obvious to hear,  I think due to the more upfront nature of this amp.  Again the Galion wants to take the music away from you which creates more depth to the sound stage but there is some softening of the sound in some regions as the trade off. I think the Galion would create a better sense of atmosphere in music compared to the NAD with some speakers, the KEF as an examole because the NAD has more subdued sounding high frequencies compared to the slightly more lit up highs of the Galion.

Doesn’t kill your wallet

So to sum things up I think with the Galion TS A75 is a power amplifier with a lot of positive qualities and an obvious character and some real charm thrown in for good measure. The kind of charm that makes it very pleasurable to listen to with no real obvious weak points until you do some comparisons with other amplifiers of course which is why you do them as a reviewer.

But its important to stress here the comparisons I did were with amplifiers costing twice as much and 15x as much. Did the Galion kill the two giants no, there were no giants were killed here but the Galion did hold its own with the more expensive NAD. Galion is offering a lot of sound quality here for the money which is the intention and that is great for the consumer. That doesn’t mean the Galion will be all things to all people. Common sense still applies here of course.

A Serious Bang for Buck Award is granted in recognition of a products stand out high performance being significantly greater than its perceived price point

For the full specification of the Galion TS A75 Stereo power amplifier see their website linked here