[braddo]

Sorry to bother you all. Just asking questions about different amps. What is good about this amp? Also what is bad? Would love to know both sides here, nothing is perfect. Thanks to all who would like to help!.

 

[Asr]

What are your source and headphones? The GS-1 is extremely revealing of source quality. I enjoyed mine with the Arcam DiVA CD73. Another Head-Fier, kontai69, seems to enjoy his with the Music Hall CD25.2. CDPs like these are close to the minimum you'd need to appreciate the amp. The amp does not pair well with neutral sources though, I liked it a bit less with the much cooler-sounding Arcam FMJ CD33 and I outright disliked it with the Cambridge Audio Azur 640C V2. The amp would not pair well with bright headphones either, like most Sony headphones and some Beyerdynamic ones.

Apart from that, the GS-1 has a lot of things going for it. Feature-packed, very clean & polished sound (as long as your source is up to par), and ready to be upgraded with new modules whenever they come out. The wait for a new one will keep you anxious for a while though.

 

[Hadden]

I had a GS-1 for a while, and loved it. A very transparent and scalable amp. I have had a few amps and this is the only one of the lot I would buy again, and probably will. It's just a very high value for the sound you get. The Larocco Headcode I had after was objectively (though not hugely) better, just not worth it for double the price.

 

[twsmith]

I agree with the others here that the GS-1 is a very transparent amp and excellent at enabling you to "see through" to your source. You may have to experiment with different sources to see what works best for you. As far as headphones themselves, I can only speak for my experience with AKG K701s and a couple of Grado models - both sound extremely good with the GS-1. The amp itself is impeccable in terms of build quality. Downsides - well, I like the amp so much that I decided to move up to the GS-X, and eventually when I get it, I may be put into the position of deciding whether to keep the GS-1 or sell it! One final point - I did get the upgrade stepped attenuator on my GS-1 - since I never heard the variable volume control, I can't say whether it makes that much of a difference (I assume it does), however as common with all stepped attenuators, you do lose some fine control over adjusting volume levels - in most cases, I haven't found this to be a problem but in a few instances, having a variable control would have been helpful. You can compensate for this somewhat using the gain selector switch, but the GS-1 only has 2 settings - high and low (thankfully the GS-X has 3).