[olek]

BTW - just in case any of you with Sennheiser's are interested, bottlehead crack with speedball is on sale right now, bringing its price down from $400 to $300. I could not help to order one since it is known as THE amp for high impedance Sennheisers. Very curious how tubes technology will stack up to H10's solid state.
 
Ah, and another thing. Got power amp section of amazing TOTL vintage integrated amplifier I am restoring now (Teac AS-200) completely back in shape (repaired, recapped with best nichicon audio grade caps and adjusted), and could not help the temptation to connect it via 'power amp in' (to avoid mess of pre-amp) and compare side-to-side with H10. To my surprise, it was quite similar, with only slightly boomier bass being the difference. No wonder, 400 Ohm output impedance is not really helping to keep bass in check. Changed headphone out resistor matrix to kick impedance down to 10 Ohm, cranked up the volume (40v power rail to the rescue!), tried again, and... wow. Overall sound very similar to H10, a tiniest bit less warm. Going back and forth number of times confirmed amazing similarities, although no miracles - H10 still wins easily on details and transparency, although on bad recordings or lossy music vintage amp can be more 'musical' (by virtue of omission). Still, tonal similarity between them is uncanny. Audio-gd Precision one is distinct in its lushness. And 1020 preamp got very distinct coloration and slight V-shape to its sound. But AS-200 and H10 are like brothers, although 40 years of age difference are easy to spot.
 
And than, after playing high bitrate mp3 of 'Ar Maen Bihan' by Yann Tiersen on all my amps, I just had to play same thing on vinyl through H10. OMG. This is seriously addictive.

 

[FlySweep]

..Clear without being analytical .. warm without being syrupy and great bass/transient response.

 
That's a great way to describe it.
 
As (one of) the original Gustard/H10 swabbies, I'm so glad to see the H10 getting more attention.. it's really a nice amp and I still miss it dearly!
 
Regarding the gain/volume talk.. my experience with variable gain settings on solid state amps I've owned** is that the high(er) gain setting tends to impart a slightly (but definitely audible) more forward midrange than the low(er) gain settings.  I've found this to be fairly consistent across all the amps I've owned, btw.  Again, just my experience.. could be placebo.. could be something to do with (similar) design (goals).. but I tend to trust my ears.. so there's that.
 
**Neco SoundLab V3 & V4 (two terrific portable amps), Meier QuickStep (another favorite), Vio V200 & Lake People G109, Leckerton UHA-6S MKII, Gustard H10.

 

[Liu Junyuan]

That's a great way to describe it.

As (one of) the original Gustard/H10 swabbies, I'm so glad to see the H10 getting more attention.. it's really a nice amp and still miss it!

Regarding the gain/volume talk.. my experience with variable gain settings on solid state amps I've owned** is that the high(er) gain setting tends to impart a slightly (but definitely audible) more forward midrange than the low(er) gain settings.  I've found this to be fairly consistent across all the amps, btw.  Again, just my experience.. could be placebo.. but I tend to trust my ears.. so there's that.

**Neco SoundLab V3 & V4 (two terrific portable amps), Meier 2Stepdance (another favorite), Vio V200 & Lake People G109, Leckerton UHA-6S MKII, Gustard H10

Thank you Flysweep. It was your post that swayed me toward the H10, as I was planning on the G109 for a long time. I am very happy with this amp!

 

[BassDigger]

Quote:

If the sound is different than in other players then it's altering it. So what you are hearing is some eq

 
Originally Posted by bavinck /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Don't knock it until you try it... And read the manual where the author explains his philosophy and approach in writing the program.

 
I'm inclined to agree with Lancer:
 
If HQPlayer is sounding 'better', that probably means that either your other players/converters (such as foobar) are having a problem, and not running properly, or HQplayer is doing something that those (already well respected) programs aren't (such as EQing or resampling).
 
But out of curiosity I will investigate; perhaps there's something there (such as a better algorithm), and if we always stick with what we know, nothing will ever change (for the better).

 

[bavinck]

I'm inclined to agree with Lancer:

If HQPlayer is sounding 'better', that probably means that either your other players/converters (such as foobar) are having a problem, and not running properly, or HQplayer is doing something that those (already well respected) programs aren't (such as EQing or resampling).

But out of curiosity I will investigate; perhaps there's something there (such as a better algorithm), and if we always stick with what we know, nothing will ever change (for the better).

The big draw of Hqplayer is good upsampling algorithms. But the stock sample rate is nice too. Upsampling with foobar I can get a similar sound, but I think hqp sound a bit better.

Upsampling through h10 sounds amazing. I don't think of upsampling as eq though, in my mind that is a different thing.

 

[BassDigger]

The big draw of Hqplayer is good upsampling algorithms. But the stock sample rate is nice too. Upsampling with foobar I can get a similar sound, but I think hqp sound a bit better.

Upsampling through h10 sounds amazing. I don't think of upsampling as eq though, in my mind that is a different thing.

 
Yeah, I had a little look at the hqplayer thread, and I thought that that may be the kind of thing you meant.
 
You're right; upsampling and EQing are completely different things: upsampling is (supposedly) adding missing music, by filling in missing parts, to create a smoother signal (as I understand it). EQing is somehow manipulating different parts of the frequency spectrum, to change the sound to your liking. I gave both up.
 
So I guess, you're (like many) using your computer to play your audio files, and you like this player.
 
But I'm afraid this is irrelevant to me, at this time; I'm gonna stick my nose up in the air and say that I use a dedicated (r2r) player, to play old-fashioned redbook wav files. (Upsampling!?! How much 'music' can a computer program add to a track, to make it sound 'better'??)
 
I wasn't sure what you were referencing; I didn't realise that you were talking about upsampling, rather than just pure conversion (such as flac to wav). So, my apologies for that.
 
Enjoy your journey.
 
P.S. I'm not sure that I should be 'contributing' to this thread; I won't be getting my H10 until the summer holiday!!! But my LCD2Fs should arrive tomorrow!!!!

 

[mjock3]

Not sure if this had been posted yet. The Gustard DAC-X12 is on massdrop.com for $439.99 5 more days.

 

[ansi]

  Not sure if this had been posted yet. The Gustard DAC-X12 is on massdrop.com for $439.99 5 more days.

 
That's $50 more than Gustard's own price of $390. I assume that includes shipping then?

 

[LancerFIN]

   
That's $50 more than Gustard's own price of $390. I assume that includes shipping then?

It doesn't. Shipping to US is about $10 I think. Rest of the world upwards $60. But it's cheaper than any ebay or shenzhenaudio offering. Atleast for US citizens.

 

[bavinck]

That's $50 more than Gustard's own price of $390. I assume that includes shipping then?

I think you are thinking about the h10. The x12 is more expensive.

 

[Liu Junyuan]

It is 2389 元 on taobao, which translates to $383. Most US buyers would prefer to go through Massdrop, I am assuming.

 

[bavinck]

It is 2389 元 on taobao, which translates to $383. Most US buyers would prefer to go through Massdrop, I am assuming.

I looked there but did not see the x12, just the h10. I would love to get that price on the x12. The $50 shipping and then customs charges makes massdrop pretty unattractive for Canadians.

 

[ansi]

  It doesn't. Shipping to US is about $10 I think. Rest of the world upwards $60. But it's cheaper than any ebay or shenzhenaudio offering. Atleast for US citizens.

 
Hey, another Finn. Where did you buy your H10? Any problems with customs?

 

[LancerFIN]

I looked there but did not see the x12, just the h10. I would love to get that price on the x12. The $50 shipping and then customs charges makes massdrop pretty unattractive for Canadians.

Taobao only ships to China. You'd have to use agent service to get it shipped outside of China which adds fees and can be risky.

   
Hey, another Finn. Where did you buy your H10? Any problems with customs?

I bought both my H10 and X12 used from European head-fiers to avoid insane custom charges. 24% VAT and 5% import tax. Of course you can lie the value to customs but it was easier to buy them used and save a lot of money.

 

[ansi]

I looked there but did not see the x12, just the h10. I would love to get that price on the x12. The $50 shipping and then customs charges makes massdrop pretty unattractive for Canadians.

 
Here you go: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.1-c.w4004-620452534.3.jcwxWY&id=18012850492
 
Actually the price difference comes from the USB - 390 bucks for one without USB, 420 for the USB one. If you use U12 there is no point in getting one with USB of course. 
 
edit: Taobao is like ebay. Ships everywhere if the seller wants to ship everywhere, and they usually do. The actual problem comes from language barriers...