Orchard Audio Reviews

I rarely give five star reviews, but this is one!
The Starkrimson Mono Ultra Premium LPS - Limited Edition monoblocks perform beyond my greatest expectations! I have been using a Krell FPB 600 amplifier for about 10 years with my Von Schweikert VR8 speakers. These monoblock amps beat the Krell hands down for all performance characteristics including bass!
Just beg Leo to build you a pair and you’ll see!

Orchard Audio equipment is class leading and customer service top notch. I’ve dealt with Leo on both an amp and a streamer and he’s been great. Highly recommend his products

It's actually amazing.... it's also very surprising... I really didn't expect this...I mean... it's so good...I realized immediately that this amp reveals a few layers of ever present micro details that were never heard before... I can start listening to my lifetime music collection all over again...😉 So thank you Leo...my sense for the pleasure reached a new level of plateau I would say...

Had to run my tube am for a few days. I was so disappointed by its sounds after running my pair of Orchard Audio amps. Now with my Starkrimson Mono blocks back in place my system is once again a dream. Such clean and controlled power!

Before I get to the way the mono’s sound in my system, let me say that Leo is wonderful to deal with. The amps are amazing. They are replacing a Naim Supernait 3 which I like very much but the Starkrimmson Mono Premium outperforms it in every way. Detail, bass, imaging and musicality. In my 45 years in this hobby these amps are the most dramatic upgrade I have experienced. Very highly recommended.

I've just taken delivery of the Orchard Audio Starkrimson Ultra DMC 2.5 Power Amp.
I was looking for a quality power amp to pair with my Trafomatic Evolution Line one tube pre-amplifier. I was expecting clean and dynamic power from the Starkrimson, and you certainly get that! However, the surprise for me was the finesse and control with which the sound is delivered. As mentioned by others, the control of the bass is truly exceptional. I have Tekton Perfect set speakers (12" driver version) which I have been using with low power tube amps. At 96 db efficiency these are easy to drive but still have 300 W power handling. You would expect the 250W into 8 ohms to be overkill, but it really isn't. It provides a level of control that my existing amps can't match. (Line magnetic 518IA and Enleum Amp 23r). Great as both of those amps are, they can't replicate the bass control that the Starkrimson showcases. However, that's not the whole story. The frequency response across the board is also exceptional. I've heard the "straight wire with gain" analogy and agree to a point. However, the surprise for me was that a number of older recordings I have, that can get into slightly sibilant territory, sound absolutely stellar on this amp. It doesn't round things off at all, but what I'm hearing just sounds more natural and pleasant. I'm not sure if it's just highlighting the virtues of my preamp. The Trafomatic evolution line one is the entry level pre-amp in their line, but it's a wonderfully simple and well-built amp. All I can say is that the match up with the Starkrimson is sublime. I was on the fence with class D amps, but after a fairly short listening session (that ended up being 6 hrs) I am sold!
Service from Leo was exceptional, and he was really helpful getting the amp to New Zealand and helping to navigate our wonderful import controls.
I can't recommend this amp highly enough. It's superb and a steal at the price.

I'm so impressed with the huge improvement that The Orchard Audio PecanPi + DAC/Music Streamer has made in my audio system. The detail in sound is immensely improved. I am hearing detail in music that I never realized before, wow. Also, getting support at Orchard Audio was no problem. Leo answered and walked me through a few set-up questions. 5 Stars!!

Leo is always easy to work with, honest and straight forward. I've owned his Pecanpi DAC/Streamer in the past and currently demoing his monoblocks. If you want to support a stellar independent American audio company, Orchard Audio is the spot!

Exceptionally impressive products and excellent support! Highly recommended!!!!

Friendly place, honest and knowledgeable guy. Direct and frank exchange, business-driven up-to-the-point purchases.

Leo was great to deal with and responsive in working with me to make sure I was satisfied with his amp.

If Leo was a DAC, he'd be top of the line for sure. Few years back when I first heard of Orchard Audio, checked their initial product which was right up their with this new trend of SBCs out of the UK which made robotic learning for kids the new hype, as well as low cost, high quality devices for men and their guilty pleasure, the SOUND.
What made it very interesting is that in the world of RaspberryPi, HifiBerry and so many others, you had this company who's owner and creator was a rock star among us men. Everyone was talking about Leo this and Leo that. The product reviews, although always among the most recommended, still came after all the praise for Leo.
Yesterday I got my Orchard-Audio PecanPi Streamer from a private vendor. The unit was 2nd hand, it arrived in a box with nothing else but a note: Enjoy the music.
Of course nothing worked as I had hoped it would and I was left with no other choice but to contact the company for HELP!
I got on a chat line with someone at the company and that person soon discovered that we were both talking different languages and where could not even described my new purchase correctly. Well lucky for me, that person did not give up on me, he tried one thing, and then another, and this went on until we hit a key word that brought us together on the same page, with a sudden clear understanding of what I had to do. 45min. that's all it took after that for me to get my new PecanPi Streamer connected, with a new SD card in and a fresh configuration.

That was the moment when music started playing, not any kind of music, but for me at least, the MUSIC that I as a man have been evolving to. I have now reached plenitude and am now ready to die if I must, but before, please let me listen to that music a little while longer. Oh!, did I mention that the poor sole at the end of the chat, the one who walked me through Dante's Inferno, well, yeah it was indeed...Leo.
Leo thanks for the MUSIC and for being you.
Robert Audet

Leo, after our discussion at the Florida International Audio Fest, I am so glad that you built a three channel amplifier, the Duo/Trio. Just having a single power cord to get your amplification over three mono amps with power supplies and power cords is a great help. More importantly, it goes extremely well with my tube amplifier used for my front speakers. I think the GanFet class D works well for the other three speakers because it matches closely to the power rating of the tube amp, adds clarity to the center channel, and balances the frequency in the rear speakers, without competing with the front speaker pair. I also think that the use of the RCA to XLR converters are important to use instead of XLR to RCA cables. The increase of 6 dB improves the sound and allows the Duo/Trio to work optimally. Why buy an amplifier and then not use it to its full capacity? Anyone who wants to purchase this three channel amp, or any other of your amps, should seriously consider adding these converters to their system. To this point, I like the converters so much that I am ordering a third for my tube amplifier to insure that I am getting a fully balanced performance.

Great job all around, thank you for taking the plunge. I hope this amplifier helps all of those people looking to upgrade their amplifiers using an Audio Video Receiver or processor, including those with tube front channels.

Leo is awesome! He is the owner. Very quick shipping! Great product! And great customer service. I have asked way too many questions. And he always answers the same day.

TL/DR: Sounds amazing. Extraordinary customer service. Highly recommended.

I have wanted to add a streamer to my hifi for a while - Rega Brio, KEF LS50s, CD and record player. But which one and what sort? Roon? Sonos? Bluetooth? WiFi? I went down the rabbit hole of reviews and forums.

I am not a technophobe by any means but a lot of the info I found was too technical and confusing. I just wanted a plug and play streamer for Tidal and was thinking of getting an Audiolab 600N. I didn’t want to spend too much as the tech seems to be advancing.

Then I read a John Darko piece about Raspberry Pi streamers and thought that seemed like an elegant solution but one that was too much of a DIY project for me to do by myself. More Googling and I found Orchard Audio.

Here’s a dude (Leo) in New Jersey with “decades of engineering expertise” at big companies making reasonably priced streamers that get great reviews. What’s not to like?

I bought the PecanPi, it arrived really quickly. It’s small, sturdy and has a solid, homemade feel that I love. I couldn’t wait to try it out.

I chose the Volumio option after discussion with Leo. Plugged it in and nothing. Ugh. I rebooted everything (all very IT Crowd). Nothing. So I emailed Leo. Ten minutes later he had emailed me back. Problem was fixed (turned out it was just some glitch in my internet) but it was clear to me that Leo was on the case if I had issues.

So now it is up and running and it’s phenomenal. Hifi descriptions of sound are as impossible as wine reviews, it’s so subjective, one man’s blackberry and slate is another’s blueberry and tar. But for me the PecanPi (in my smallish NY apartment) is big, detailed, has a great, intimate, 3D feel and sounds as good playing Satie as it does the Oh Sees.

Very happy customer. Thank you!

I was looking for the best GAN based Class D amplifier I could and stumbled across some positive reviews of the Starkrimson Ultra Gan amplifier. My initial buying experience was atypical in that the amplifier wasn't able to deal with my 125vac due to it triggering the overvoltage circuit to cut off the amplifier. I'm not going to sugar coat it; I reacted a bit too hastily with my words g g and well in the end cooler heads prevailed and Leo agreed to put a better regulated replacement power supply and solved the problem for me. Right out of the gate this amp has a very deep punchy bottom end. The midrange drivers and AMT tweeters sound as good as I've ever heard them now. I'm glad I kept this amplifier as it offers so much better control over the bass with extremely natural sounding mids and high. I highly recommend you audition the Starkrimson Ultra before checking out other class D or Gan based amps

Orchard Audio Starkrimson Stereo Ultra Review
Michael Valentiner

A big thanks to Leo for the opportunity to evaluate the Orchard Audio Starkrimson Stereo Ultra amp.

It is hard to add anything that hasn't been already said about this amp. It is detailed, dynamic, lively, has well defined bass, etc. Superlative in many aspects.

Detailed, smooth, and bright. Musical notes are very articulate and distinct from one another. Great separation of musical instruments. Percussion instruments are rendered in great detail. I was hearing things I hadn't heard in the mix before.

These little monoblocks paired with the streamer as a pre-amp is the smallest footprint endgame stereo set up out there.

I bought a PecanPi 18 months ago yet Leo didn't hesitate to advise on solving a technical issue I ran into today. Top Man!