I currently have one in my possession. I haven't and probably won't be able to listen to it long enough to really give an in-depth review, but for the price I think its pretty good.
However I had to sell it since it just made me want to kick myself in the nuts really hard when I think about the Grace901 I sold which IMO had a better DAC (although 'nerfed' and hard to appraise in that you can only listen to it through headphone jack). I won't even mention a headphone jack or build/asthetics comparison less I wear a cup, but thats not fair since...well it was a Grace 901, you'd know if you saw and held the two. Still you will be pleasantly surprised by build for the price, but at the same time lets not forget how improved headphone gear builds have been recently all-around.
It makes me want to kick myself twice when I think about the Headroom Desktop Combo that was given away for sale recently as well. Yes both are at 'multiples' of cost in comparison...but still you do see where a lot of the money goes. Plus with some serious shopping luck and sensibility you can knock off a multiple or so.
I've listened to it enough to know its not a giant killer (in stock form with unbalanced outputs at least), and makes me pine for my lost giant of a combo that was my Grace, or try the new Headroom offerings. Still it has potential, and by listening to it in unbalanced mode, admittedly I'm only gonna end up hearing a fraction of the entire output stage, and also a cmoy headphone amp.
Anyhow I tend to make my judgements quite quickly, after the years I'm pretty much immune to new-toy feelings(after going through too many new toys hehe), and don't have enough schizophrenic tendences to toggle between love-hate 100 times to need 1000 hour burn ins.
Its worth its price although perhaps a fixer upper. Yet it also confirms to me that my long lost Grace 901 was definitely worth its price(especially the one I paid). To be honest, if I took the price of my Grace 901, and subtracted out the price of the Gilmore Lite (which I don't even like as much as a headphone amp compared to the Grace 901), it leaves very very little margin for a DAC that would really compare
. It's like going out with a new girlfriend that reminds you of an old ex-girlfriend that was just...better? So you see the relationship was short lived. Who knows if you do some implants and surgery though. Oh well this probably reveals more about my feelings about the Grace than it does about this DAC lol.
