I just bought one of these for $499 this week and mine arrived today via FedEx. All I can say is Wow.
I had been in the market for a second headphone amp for my HD-650s and had been leaning heavily toward Woo Audio or Dark Voice. But last week I bought a PS Audio Digital Link III DAC on a whim from fellow head-fier headphoneaddict and was so impressed with the build quality and sound that the PS Audio GCHA rose to the top of my list of head amp upgrades. After learning that the GCHA has both RCA and XLR inputs, I decided it was a perfect match for the home office system I'm building since it allows me to connect my DL III to my loudspeaker amp via RCA and run the XLRs to the head amp.
Convenience factor aside, how does it sound? A full review will have to wait for later, but I'll just say I would have been satisfied if the GCHA merely performed as well as my LD MKIV tube amp. I'm not one to normally hear tremendous differences between amps, DACs and the like, but I can honestly say that the GCHA is my new reference amp.
I have to think that the $1000 price tag kept a lot of folks from taking a closer look at PS Audio's solid little headphone amp. At the $499 price point mentioned above, I think a lot more folks should give this a listen. Sure, it's made in China now instead of Boulder, but so are most of the other good amps at this price point (And when you stop to consider the number of engineers China graduates in a year compared to the U.S., Made in China starts to make more sense as a respectable consumer choice).
But check out the Six Moons review and realize that this unit is selling for half of what it was back then and tell me if it doesn't start to sound like a good value.
