I am actually last on the list for this amp, but I see some people before me are lagging in their remarks
On opening the box, my first thought was how incredibly small the Gilmore Lite is for a home amp! Here it is on top of my Yarland tube amp:
It's not much bigger than a portable amp! The DPS adds a second chassis, but still, this would be a great choice for a home amp for someone with space constraints.
Solidly build little amp though, and attractive enough. It has plenty of oomph - it was able to drive my 600 ohm Beyers without difficulty. In fact, it did a fine job of that. The GL has a kind of "midrangy" sound. It's somewhat lush/forward in the mids, or looking at it another way, it lacks very deep bass and the last little bit of treble extension and air. That made is a pretty good match with mt DT990's, but less so with my Denon D5000, although they still sounded quite good. Female vocals like Bjork and Alison Krauss were wonderful - very smooth and warm and inviting. Midrange detail was very good. Bass was tight and tuneful, if a little lean. But the amp does not sound lean overall. It's a very enjoyable listen.
Soundstaging was good but not superlative - it was less wide with my DT990's that I am used to, and certainly much less than with the Meier Opera. Since I listened to the GL in my office, I did some comparisons to the Opera, which wasn't really fair, since the Opera is more than twice the price. But the Opera was much better - more bass, , better soundstaging, more treble extension, more transparent sounding.
I also compared it to the very similarly priced Meier Aria, and this was a bit tougher. I preferred the Aria, and by quite a bit still. It's more neutral sounding. But the GL has a more tube-like midband, and that will tip the balance the other way for some people. Also, the GL has a lot more gain than the Aria, which can just barely drive the 600 ohm Beyers to enough level, which the GL does with ease. With low impedance/high sensitivity cans the Aria is likely the better choice, but for someone using 600 ohm Beyers or AKGs or whatever, the GL is a better choice.
So all in all, I really liked the little Gilmore Lite. Cute as a button in it's mini-chassis, and very good sounding. At it's price of $500 it's very competitive. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a small, powerful home amp that won't break the bank. Big thanks to ASR for letting me try it out!