[Liu Junyuan]

bavinck Just curious, what gain setting were you using for which headphones? I prefer at least +6 for each of mine, and this is especially important for the K7XX.

 

[Koolpep]

Hi Guys,
 
just introducing myself here.
 
@lukeap69 was so kind in selling me his Gustard H10 - and I love it. 
 
Am currently using it with LCD-2F, HD650, HE-400 and man am I impressed. Especially with the HE-400 - to be honest I was a bit underwhelmed at first. It had potential but I never really liked it that much, even with grill mod and focus pads, had a bit of buyers remorse. Especially the very dry bass. Not anymore....
 
Suddenly this headphone is more than I could ask for. Of course the LCD-2 sings with this amp as well as the HD650. 
 
I am a happy camper and the amp is already fully burned in - so I am not having any ups and downs - just pure audio bliss. I am feeding it from a CEntrance DACMini CX at home. 
 
Love this amp.
By the way, the HE-560 also sounds amazing on it. though it does not scale as massively as the others with this amp.
 
Cheers,
K

 

[Liu Junyuan]

Hi Guys,

just introducing myself here.

@lukeap69
 was so kind in selling me his Gustard H10 - and I love it. 

Am currently using it with LCD-2F, HD650, HE-400 and man am I impressed. Especially with the HE-400 - to be honest I was a bit underwhelmed at first. It had potential but I never really liked it that much, even with grill mod and focus pads, had a bit of buyers remorse. Especially the very dry bass. Not anymore....

Suddenly this headphone is more than I could ask for. Of course the LCD-2 sings with this amp as well as the HD650. 

I am a happy camper and the amp is already fully burned in - so I am not having any ups and downs - just pure audio bliss. I am feeding it from a CEntrance DACMini CX at home. 

Love this amp.
By the way, the HE-560 also sounds amazing on it. though it does not scale as massively as the others with this amp.

Cheers,
K

Welcome. I am glad you are enjoying the amp. I believe Arnold sold it because he purchased a Ragnarok.

I am curious as to why you find the HE-400 to scale the best with it. Why not the LCD-2?

 

[Koolpep]

Welcome. I am glad you are enjoying the amp. I believe Arnold sold it because he purchased a Ragnarok.

I am curious as to why you find the HE-400 to scale the best with it. Why not the LCD-2?

 
Hi!
 
thanks for the welcome
 
Yes Arnold needed space, lucky me!!
 
I might not have expressed that very well. The LCD-2 also benefits from this amp and sounds absolutely its best with it (from my experience so far). But what I meant with "scale well" for the HE-400 was that the difference with this amp compared to the amps I used before is WAY bigger than with the LCD-2. Meaning the LCD-2 was already sounding very good at my other amps, while the HE-400 didn't. So the difference this amp made to the HE-400 was bigger. The LCD-2 sounds way better than the HE-400 but the H10 made a bigger difference in my mind to the HE-400. The LCD-2 already sounded breathtaking on my Gloveaudio A1 with a balanced Norne audio cable...
 
Cheers,
K

 

[lukeap69]

For the record, I was selling my Lyr 2. @Koolpep was also interested with thr H10 so he brought both amps home to compare. Long story short, the Lyr came back to me and the H10 remained with Ralf. I only agreed because Ralf is a friend...

Yeah, lucky you Ralf!

 

[Koolpep]

For the record, I was selling my Lyr 2. @Koolpep was also interested with thr H10 so he brought both amps home to compare. Long story short, the Lyr came back to me and the H10 remained with Ralf. I only agreed because Ralf is a friend...

Yeah, lucky you Ralf!

 

[DecentLevi]

  Did anyone here attend Canjam Socal and listen to the Cavalli Liquid Carbon.  I would like a comparison to the H10 if possible.  The Liquid Carbon goes on sale tomorrow for a limited production run at $599.  It's rated at 1500Mw output.  Is that enough to run LCD-2f adequately?

You would probably get a better posting here:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/758649/canjam-socal-2015-impressions-thread
 
For me, I tried the semi-portable Cavalli Liquid Silicon and was quite impressed, as was another authorative audio reviewer but not their larger amps.

 

[olek]

  I am a happy camper and the amp is already fully burned in - so I am not having any ups and downs - just pure audio bliss. I am feeding it from a CEntrance DACMini CX at home. 

 
Oh, this is my lucky day! Somebody with both Dacmini and H10! How would you compare amplifier in Dacmini to H10? And how would you rate DAC part of Dacmini? And its synergy with H10? I am considering getting Dacmini, and any/all feedback is very welcome...

 

[bavinck]

bavinck Just curious, what gain setting were you using for which headphones? I prefer at least +6 for each of mine, and this is especially important for the K7XX.

I am using +6 on my he500s exclusively. Last night, after 70 hrs, the soundstage has opened up very nicely and I am starting to get rich, deep, textured bass. The highs are detailed, and not fatiguing. So far so good

 

[olek]

@bavinck Glad that H10 is more to your liking now. Bass texture in some music should improve even more after dac upgrade (it did for me, although not uniformly, some tracks are remarkably better, some are about the same).
 
Still, isn't it fascinating that most people indicate dramatic turn for the better around 70 hours (after 3 days)? It can't possibly be right because burn-in is a myth!

 

[bavinck]

Something is changing in the h10. I have let it run constantly for 4 days, and listening for about 1-2 hrs each day to "check in" . It went from sounding really nice right out of the box, to sounding eh, to sounding great last night!

As an aside, I have also been convinced this week of the ability of a cable upgrade to change the sound as well. I have a silver plated cable for my iems that definitely bettered the bass response (depth and texture) of my iems. Just FYI, not trying to start a cable war!

 

[Koolpep]

   
Oh, this is my lucky day! Somebody with both Dacmini and H10! How would you compare amplifier in Dacmini to H10? And how would you rate DAC part of Dacmini? And its synergy with H10? I am considering getting Dacmini, and any/all feedback is very welcome...

The DAC of the DACMini CX is really great. Detailed and musical - very neutral less bright than other equipment I have but not loosing detail. 
 
Singer Synergy with the H10 is great. I have the DACMini with the 1 Ohm mod. So that means I can use the DACMini if I need to connect low impedance IEMs of headphones (like a Momentum or a Custom one Pro etc.) for which the H10 with its 10 Ohm output impedance would not be so great. So for that I use the headphone out of the DACMini, for every other headphone I use the H10.
 
I love the DACMini because of it's versatility - it connects to everything, COAX for my X5, optical for my AK100 and Apple TV, USB to my Computer and line in for everything else. it looks nice, feels good and the sound quality is like all CEntrance products I encountered so far, outstanding. 
 
So from my side a clear recommendation. Massdrop currently has the DACMini CX for $389.99 at the lowest drop level and that includes the 1 Ohm mod (if you want to)....
 
Cheers,
K
 
EDIT: typo that got autocorrected

 

[Liu Junyuan]

I am using +6 on my he500s exclusively. Last night, after 70 hrs, the soundstage has opened up very nicely and I am starting to get rich, deep, textured bass. The highs are detailed, and not fatiguing. So far so good

Interesting how that happens. Your description corresponds with mine: detailed yet non- fatiguing.

 

[Liu Junyuan]

Something is changing in the h10. I have let it run constantly for 4 days, and listening for about 1-2 hrs each day to "check in" . It went from sounding really nice right out of the box, to sounding eh, to sounding great last night!

As an aside, I have also been convinced this week of the ability of a cable upgrade to change the sound as well. I have a silver plated cable for my iems that definitely bettered the bass response (depth and texture) of my iems. Just FYI, not trying to start a cable war!

stuartmc needs to return and officially initiate you into swabbie status for the SS Gustard! LOL

 

[DecentLevi]

Hello @Koolpep, What were you talking about "Singer" with the H10 is great. Is that a DAC type? Also did you prefer the DACMini with the H10 better than the X12? Is so, what sonic attributes makes it better / worse? Thanks