[OracleGuy]

I think Jude is just trying to drive us crazy by not posting any updates about this amp for the last 11 days...

 

[doobooloo]

Quote:

I think Jude is just trying to drive us crazy by not posting any updates about this amp for the last 11 days...

Seems like he's been very successful too!

Anyway, I would love to get some updates as well. Very exciting product...

 

[jude]

I'll post more about it on the 13th (Wednesday). I sent some of my beta evaluator comments to PS Audio tonight.

Long story short, this beta GCHA is an excellent amp, and I have no doubt it will find a following here if the production units end up sounding like this one. Again, I'll post more about it on Wednesday.

 

[OracleGuy]

Jude, you're teasing us again! Oh, the anticipation ...

On a slightly different topic, will you be able to beta test the upcoming PS Audio DAC? I'm still trying to figure out my next upgrade step -- a good DAC with USB input is mandatory. Unfortunately the PS Audio DAC sounds like it's still a ways from production. I'm dying to know how it compares with a transit+DAC-1.

... or maybe replace my Gilmore Lite with the PS Audio amp?

 

[jude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OracleGuy Jude, you're teasing us again! Oh, the anticipation ... On a slightly different topic, will you be able to beta test the upcoming PS Audio DAC? I'm still trying to figure out my next upgrade step -- a good DAC with USB input is mandatory. Unfortunately the PS Audio DAC sounds like it's still a ways from production. I'm dying to know how it compares with a transit+DAC-1. ... or maybe replace my Gilmore Lite with the PS Audio amp?

Sorry, everyone. I'm behind due to tax-related stuff. I'll try to post as soon as I can, but today's looking bad, too.

OracleGuy, I think their beta testing is traditionally by invitation only, and I haven't been asked to beta that one.

 

[OracleGuy]

That's a good excuse. Luckily we Canucks get until the end of the month.

"Why put off until tomorrow what you can leave until the day after that?"

 

[Nightfall]

That's a good excuse. Luckily we Canucks get until the end of the month.

Thats only fair, given how much more tax you poor Canadian's have to pay. I love Canada, excepting the taxes. Just glad I'm not having to pay that percentage of income here in the States

JC

 

[Yikes]

OK Tax time has come and gone. Any idea when some further thoughts (on the PS Audio headphone amp) might be forthcoming?

 

[OracleGuy]

Bump. Wouldn't want Jude to forget!

 

[2MnyToys]

Bump

 

[00940]

One more amp ? It's like they're falling from the sky every day now. I'm feeling awfully old school with a RKV and a dynalo.

But it looks really good. The sceptic in me wonders what kind of trick is to be found inside those gain cells.

Quote:

Originally Posted by doobooloo Oh, one concern about all these USB stereo units... I'm assuming that these companies don't really have a lot of experience in audio driver development, so most likely the standard Windows drivers will be used (and hence go through kmixer)? One thing that I really like about the Edirol UA-25 that I own now is that Edirol produces top notch drivers that allow bypass of kmixer and add a bunch of other tweakabilities/functions... I wonder how much of an effort PS Audio is putting into driver development?

let's guess they use the TI PCM290** like everyone else and that you can thus use ASIO4ALL.

 

[fr4c]

like many here, i'm very interested in the gain cell. so tempting...

 

[OracleGuy]

Seems very intriguing. C'mon Jude!

 

[2MnyToys]

Bump?

 

[jude]

I posted the following about the GCHA in the Detroit Mini-Meet Impressions thread:

__________________

[size=small]PS Audio GCHA (Gain Cell Headphone Amplifier) Pre-Production Beta:[/size] Before hearing it, I admittedly had mild expectations (at best) for PS Audio's upcoming headphone amp. Why? To the best of my knowledge, PS Audio had never designed or made a headphone amp before. When asked if they had much experience, even casually, with other headphone amp products, the replies I received were frank admissions that they had little (read: virtually no) experience with headphone amp products of any sort, prior to the development of their own GCHA. Yes, they build other critically acclaimed high-end-audio-related products (most having to do with power conditioning), but, as most veteran Head-Fi'ers know, not every attempt by well-known hi-fi manufacturers to enter headphone hi-fi has proven terribly fruitful, at least by the demanding sonic standards that Head-Fi'ers hold headphone amps to today.

I was invited to be one of the GCHA beta tester by PS Audio, and, of course, I accepted. (From my observations over the years, PS Audio is very good about making consumer beta testing a component of a product's development, which I think is something more companies should do.) I fully expected that I'd be going back and forth with PS Audio with critiques and suggested changes, but I only came up with one significant suggestion for them, and I've had this thing for months: increase the GCHA's maximum gain (which, given its architecture, is apparently an easy adjustment for PS Audio to make). That's it, that's the extent of the suggestions I had for PS Audio for the GCHA, because, as for its sonic performance, it's a top-notch solid state offering that, to my ears, challenges the best conventional solid state amps I've heard, including even the best I've heard so far from HeadRoom, Meier Audio, and Ray Samuels Audio (not including the HeadRoom BlockHead, which I'd call unconventional). The GCHA's extension from bottom to top is excellent, with deep, thundering bass just waiting for the right recording to call it up, and with good, if not quite standard-setting, control from low bass to mid bass. From midrange to its sparkling treble, neutrality is what the GCHA serves up, but yet it doesn't sound dry due to its penchant for allowing harmonics to bloom rather full, and so timbral performance is also very good. Harmonics and timbral resolution are typically a couple of the hallmarks of good tube amplification, but a few solid state amps I've heard--like the high-end HeadRooms and Meiers, and now the GCHA--do that dance as deftly as good tube amps I've heard. Whereas the high-end Meier amps (like the HA2 MkII and the PreHead) and the high-end HeadRoom amps (like the Max and the BlockHead) present with corporeal solidity, the GCHA, especially from the mids on up, goes for a more airy, enveloping presentation, with ambient retrieval as one of its obvious strengths. Well-recorded instrumental soloists, allowed to monopolize the acoustics of the venues they play in, really bring out this characteristic trait of the GCHA in the most positive light, as do chamber ensembles and live small jazz groups (like John Pizzarelli Trio's Live at Birdland). With its solid bass, it has good rhythmic drive for rock and pop, but some might desire a little more solidity through the midband for that kind of music (although with my heavy intake of jazz and classical, I'm not one of them).

Also interesting about this amp is that it was driving the K1000 at the Mini-Meet enthusiastically, if somewhat quietly. I have a feeling that if PS Audio ups the maximum available gain as I’ve suggested, that this may be still another in a growing stable of amps able to drive the difficult K1000.

I'll have more to say about this amp soon, but I can say comfortably now that PS Audio has a very good thing going with the GCHA. Other than HeadRoom, I can’t think of any other high-end headphone amp manufacturer that would currently have a higher level of name recognition with non-Head-Fi audiophiles. With PS Audio's broad reach into the high-end audio world, this headphone amp of theirs may have a larger impact than any of the other new non-HeadRoom headphone amps in introducing high-end headphone audio to more audio enthusiasts not already in our specific branch of hi-fi.