[bavinck]

I would say the bass on the H10 is very faithful to the recording. Most classic rock does not have a very strong bass presence, so it very well could be the type of music you like to listen to that is influencing the bass response.

 

[auvgeek]

Let's not forget that the H10 is a clone of a ~$1K amp that some prefer in sound to the Violectric's...

I don't see how they would price anything similarly to the LC if they heavily undercut a $1K design.

The main reason the LC isn't priced to compare with the H10 is also because it isn't transportable. 

Fair point about the cost of a clone being cheaper than the R&D associated with a new product.

I don't understand your comment about transportable, though. You're saying the LC is transportable, so it's priced higher?

 

[DreamKing]

Fair point about the cost of a clone being cheaper than the R&D associated with a new product.

I don't understand your comment about transportable, though. You're saying the LC is transportable, so it's priced higher?

 
For what they pack into the transportable lightweight build, hell yes. Notably: Balanced output, 1.5W into 50 ohms.
 
Why would it price similarly to a clone of another design that is heavier? Wouldn't make sense.
 
It's safe to assume the H10 wasn't in Cavalli's crosshair.0

 

[DecentLevi]

Hello again @pippen99 about your comparison of the H10 and Liquid Carbon amps; I just wanted to confirm: were you using the same exact pair of headphones on both amps, and using the same song and a similar music player? Sometimes different pairs of the same headphone can have sound variance and different songs always have different mastering, and different transports (players) can play the same tune differently.
 
Also in regards to fixing your problem with the bass of your H10; have you tried all the various gain settings on the back of the H10 to see if this could fix it? 

 

[auvgeek]

For what they pack into the transportable lightweight build, hell yes. Notably: Balanced output, 1.5W into 50 ohms.

Why would it price similarly to a clone of another design that is heavier? Wouldn't make sense.

It's safe to assume the H10 wasn't in Cavalli's crosshair.

I fully agree with your last statement, and I'm not trying to take away from the LC at all. I never said it was overpriced, over hyped, etc. I've never heard it, so I'm not making any assessments other than I think it's a bit odd to compare a $300 desktop, SE amp to a $600 transportable, balanced amp. Even if the H10 is a clone of a $1k amp, the reality is that it's widely available new for $300-$350, unlike the LC.

 

[Liu Junyuan]

A lot of people on this thread rave about the bass from the H10 but I don't hear it.  I find the setup I run(Gustard H10+X12+Lcd-2f) to be very mid-centric.  If the track as exceptional bass then I hear it throughout.  If the track has average lows the middle seems to submerge or cover over the low end.  Since this is my first system I do not have the experience to attribute this to a particular unit in my system.  I can only try to explain with my limited audio vocabulary what I hear. Looking forward to the LC delivery.

You have not seem to be satisfied with the H10 since you got it. There is nothing wrong with that at all. I am sure the LC will be an interesting listen.

The amp is not going to emphasize the bass, though. Instead of mid-centric, so you want bass-centric?

I wish I could hear the LCD-2F on the H10 to know. LCD-2's are inherently mid-centric anyways. But my HE-500 is fairly flat FR.

Are you going to buy a balanced cable for the LC?

 

[DreamKing]

I fully agree with your last statement, and I'm not trying to take away from the LC at all. I never said it was overpriced, over hyped, etc. I've never heard it, so I'm not making any assessments other than I think it's a bit odd to compare a $300 desktop, SE amp to a $600 transportable, balanced amp. Even if the H10 is a clone of a $1k amp, the reality is that it's widely available new for $300-$350, unlike the LC.

 
^Perfectly understandable, I agree and that was my main point. They don't have the same purpose.

 

[pippen99]

No. The LC was at the Nashville Meet.  I was using the LCD-2f for comparisons of everything that day.  I could not use the same music with the LC.  The Schiit stack(Mjolnir+Gungnir) was also superior to my Gustard stack and I did compare quite a few of the same songs with it.  I liked The LC best but it was using a superior dac and source.  Are you totally confused now?  I'm getting there.

 

[pippen99]

You have not seem to be satisfied with the H10 since you got it. There is nothing wrong with that at all. I am sure the LC will be an interesting listen.

The amp is not going to emphasize the bass, though. Instead of mid-centric, so you want bass-centric?

I wish I could hear the LCD-2F on the H10 to know. LCD-2's are inherently mid-centric anyways. But my HE-500 is fairly flat FR.

Are you going to buy a balanced cable for the LC?

I'm not sure I'm exactly disappointed.  I think going from a Sharp mini-system and Ultrasone HFI-2400 I expected audio gold and I got silver or at best gold-plate.  I naively expected everything to sound better and now I know better.
 
I ordered a Norne Draug v2 at the Nashville meet.  Nice people and a nice show discount!

 

[Liu Junyuan]

I'm not sure I'm exactly disappointed.  I think going from a Sharp mini-system and Ultrasone HFI-2400 I expected audio gold and I got silver or at best gold-plate.  I naively expected everything to sound better and now I know better.

I ordered a Norne Draug v2 at the Nashville meet.  Nice people and a nice show discount!

You can sell it and buy another amp while you wait for the LC. The Leck might be a nice option, or perhaps a used Lyr.

 

[DecentLevi]

  No. The LC was at the Nashville Meet.  I was using the LCD-2f for comparisons of everything that day.  I could not use the same music with the LC.  The Schiit stack(Mjolnir+Gungnir) was also superior to my Gustard stack and I did compare quite a few of the same songs with it.  I liked The LC best but it was using a superior dac and source.  Are you totally confused now?  I'm getting there.

So in my interpretation, it looks like with an indirect comparison you liked the Liquid Carbon better; but it could have been either due to the LC sound signature being more to your liking or that the superiour DAC and transport is what made it sound better than the H10.
 
Anyway at least I'll be able to try at least one of those at a San Francisco meet in July. Cavalli and LH Labs (Geek Out makers), etc. will be there, along with member's rigs.

 

[olek]

  Also in regards to fixing your problem with the bass of your H10; have you tried all the various gain settings on the back of the H10 to see if this could fix it? 

 
I tested how gain switches influence frequency response by hanging headphones on a (reasonably good) microphone, observing signal strength in AudioXplorer (wonderful app for Mac), and playing test tones at 100/250/440/1k/10kHz. No noticeable difference was noticed when changing gain (unlike when switching from one amp to the other - there was a difference for those cases, and it confirmed what I was hearing).
 
Subjectively, when playing music, sound was a bit more aggressive in high gain settings, it may have something to do with how transients/attack is handled, or dynamics, but overall frequency response was NOT changing according to my pseudo-scientific test.

 

[olek]

  Just wanted to jump in quickly to mention that you really need to be careful of the volume at meets. I went to my first local meet about a month ago, and I've had tinnitus ever since. The ambient noise was so loud, it didn't even seem like I cranked the volume particularly high, but apparently I overdid it. I'm relatively young, and I've always been extremely careful of my hearing (low volume for regular listening, earplugs at concerts, etc), so I'm pretty bummed. Just thought I'd pass it along since we're discussing volume levels, and Gustard's pricing allows it to be some people's first "nice" setup--the kind you might want to take to a meet...

 
You may be cursed with a similar condition to what I am suffering from. According to the doctor, there are those people (1% of population?) that have hearing so sensitive that it gets damaged very quickly in environment that is still fine for others. I lost most of hearing on my right ear after shooting 7 bullets from a 'riffle' during silly 'defence' training I was forced to undertake in my 20s (of course, we were supplied no hearing protection, real man do not need that).
 
And a practical advice to ANYBODY: if you think you were subjected to a loud enough noise to cause you problems (either explosive in nature, or semi-constant, like listening to music very loudly, like during concert, or meet), run to you nearby pharmacy, buy some magnesium supplement (over the counter, and cheap), and take it for couple days. It was shown to prevent irreversible hearing loss, even if taken AFTER the exposure. There were some research done on military personnel, where they were involved in training that required a lot of shooting many weeks in a row, and invariably control group lost about 20% of their hearing by the end of the test, but 'magnesium'-doped group had no measurable hearing loss, even if supplement was taken some time after the exposure, and even if taking it in small quantities.
 
I wish somebody told me this 20 years ago.
 
Sorry for non-H10-related-OT, but I think this is more important to quality of your music than any amp money can buy.

 

[Walderstorn]

  Customs in Portugal don't seem to be much different from Finland. 24% VAT on anything over 22€ of value. Items that are worth more than 150€ (shipping included in the worth) get 5% import fee. So that's 29% on top of the original price. You have to upload invoice or picture of the payment on the customs site before they release your package. So new H10 costs 410 euros here. New lake people G109P costs 440 euros.

 
Yeah that seems about right, my costs will probably be around 392, but thats up to them.
 
Edit - that actually may be "new" contender for the worse EU country for non-EU imports.

 

[auvgeek]

   
You may be cursed with a similar condition to what I am suffering from. According to the doctor, there are those people (1% of population?) that have hearing so sensitive that it gets damaged very quickly in environment that is still fine for others. I lost most of hearing on my right ear after shooting 7 bullets from a 'riffle' during silly 'defence' training I was forced to undertake in my 20s (of course, we were supplied no hearing protection, real man do not need that).
 
And a practical advice to ANYBODY: if you think you were subjected to a loud enough noise to cause you problems (either explosive in nature, or semi-constant, like listening to music very loudly, like during concert, or meet), run to you nearby pharmacy, buy some magnesium supplement (over the counter, and cheap), and take it for couple days. It was shown to prevent irreversible hearing loss, even if taken AFTER the exposure. There were some research done on military personnel, where they were involved in training that required a lot of shooting many weeks in a row, and invariably control group lost about 20% of their hearing by the end of the test, but 'magnesium'-doped group had no measurable hearing loss, even if supplement was taken some time after the exposure, and even if taking it in small quantities.
 
I wish somebody told me this 20 years ago.
 
Sorry for non-H10-related-OT, but I think this is more important to quality of your music than any amp money can buy.

Thanks much for the magnesium tip. I suspect it's too late for me, but I'll try some nonetheless. I've also read that other factors (such as stress) can also have an adverse affect on tinnitus and I'm under quite a bit of stress from school right now, so I'm hopeful that's partly to blame.