[Zennheiser]

Thanks. I didn't get a hard copy or a link with my H20. I did get the warranty card, though.

 

[gulakpii]

My Warranty card is like a real credit card!

 

[Zennheiser]

My Warranty card is like a real credit card!

 

[Zennheiser]

Yup. I remarked about that earlier and in my first impressions thread. It has the "serial number" imprinted on it. That should finally put the warranty issue to rest, with any luck at least.

 

[NinjaMilez]

Was looking at one of these to go alongside my X20Pro DAC and hoped someone could answer a quick question for me.

Does the preamp output become muted once headphones are connected? The X20Pro has a minor quirk where all outputs are active at once and wasn't sure if the H20 would follow suit.

Cheers,
Miles

 

[Zennheiser]

Not on mine.

 

[sonicjr623]

Was looking at one of these to go alongside my X20Pro DAC and hoped someone could answer a quick question for me.

Does the preamp output become muted once headphones are connected? The X20Pro has a minor quirk where all outputs are active at once and wasn't sure if the H20 would follow suit.

Cheers,
Miles

After power on, the H20's preamplifier output and headphones outputs are always active.

 

[Zennheiser]

After power on, the H20's preamplifier output and headphones outputs are always active.

Correct. I thought I'd made that clear in my post, but perhaps it could be misinterpreted. I answered the question (as posed) in the negative, because the outputs are all active, all the time.

 

[NinjaMilez]

After power on, the H20's preamplifier output and headphones outputs are always active.

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[sebna]

Available at Massdrop again

 

[soumya.banerjee]

I received Sparkos SS3602 last week. Been evaluating for last couple of days. I would strongly encourage H20 owners to invest in these OPAMPs. You will be pleasantly surprised. Will probably post detailed impressions of how H20 sounds after the mod. If there is one that stands out with Sparkos - insane SNR. With SS3602 in H20, you can hear the DAC's resolution limits. I didn't realise how much untapped potential SMSL M8A had. Of course with Holo Spring, it's a different level altogether.
LME49720 has a warm signature, lower detail levels, tones sound smeared with each other and consequently much lesser articulation. Make no mistake stock configuration of H20 with 49720 is very very good. However you will have no idea how transparent H20 buffer/output stages are until you try a more neutral and detail extracting opamp like SS3602. Please do give it a shot.

Btw, I didn't realise H20 does phase splitting from RCA inputs to its balanced outputs. Thought the XLR outputs only worked with XLR inputs, silly me.

 

[alphanumerix1]

On massdrop again is this amp actually worth a look?

 

[Zennheiser]

I wanted an amp that would drive difficult VERY difficult loads. It sounds terrific and is immaculately constructed. My other "end-game" amp is a Schiit Lyr 2. That's going to do it for me outside of portables. I think the current baseline in this hobby is "buy and flip". I buy and hold. The politics regarding where amps come from or whose economy they help or hinder is of zero interest to me. But I do find some interesting trends in who responds, how and why in these discussions. I know politics is everywhere, but this amplifier (after having heard and owning a number of amps now) is worth a closer look. They also appear to do a decent job of holding their value. That could change if 400,000 of them are manufactured/sold, but if they're all of the quality that mine represents, that'll be a worst case 400,000 satisfied customer knowledge base. I like mine a lot.

 

[Alcophone]

I wanted an amp that would drive difficult VERY difficult loads. It sounds terrific and is immaculately constructed. My other "end-game" amp is a Schiit Lyr 2. That's going to do it for me outside of portables. I think the current baseline in this hobby is "buy and flip". I buy and hold. The politics regarding where amps come from or whose economy they help or hinder is of zero interest to me. But I do find some interesting trends in who responds, how and why in these discussions. I know politics is everywhere, but this amplifier (after having heard and owning a number of amps now) is worth a closer look. They also appear to do a decent job of holding their value. That could change if 400,000 of them are manufactured/sold, but if they're all of the quality that mine represents, that'll be a worst case 400,000 satisfied customer knowledge base. I like mine a lot.

How would you describe the differences to the Lyr 2? I have tried it with LISST, stock tubes, Gold Lions and National 6922. I preferred the Jotunheim in all cases, though the Gold Lions had some charm. Thanks!

 

[soumya.banerjee]

How would you describe the differences to the Lyr 2? I have tried it with LISST, stock tubes, Gold Lions and National 6922. I preferred the Jotunheim in all cases, though the Gold Lions had some charm. Thanks!

I have Lyr 2 and Valhalla 2. Also have LISST and Genalex Gold Lion.
I will talk of Lyr 2 since that's what has been asked. Regardless of what tubes you use, you can not outdo the output stage of Lyr 2 - the FETs used imparts a grainy and veiled sound. Obviously these traits are not apparent until you hear something better. I have never been able to use a good / reference ESS DAC implementation with Schiit amps. These amps pair well if you are using Schiit DACs or any other DAC that uses AKM or Chord, which have a warm tonality.
Lyr 2 has a slam which might appeal to some - though it sounds very muddy or dirty. They do sound airy and have an emulated soundstage of their own.
Lyr 2 has a perceivable noise floor as you crank up the pot. My unit has about 17mV channel imbalance on low gain. Further I can't use it with my sensitive IEMs like Kaiser Encore etc. The noise floor along with some other spurious noise is a show-stopper.

Gustard H20 on the other hand is several leagues cleaner and much more neutral sounding. The difference is not subtle - it will jump right at you. What distinguishes H20 from Lyr and Valhalla is extreme clarity and dynamics. If you are like me who likes listening at moderate volumes, you will be surprised how much dynamics H20 has even at low volumes. H20 also has much more defined articulation and layering and while it's sound-stage is larger than Schiit amps, it's only obvious when the track calls for such spatial effects. Extension on both ends is much better too.
I was able to use sensitive IEMs without any spurious noise on H20.