I do own a JDS Labs C5, As far as being a pure amp, I'll say HA-2 and C5 are pretty close. I'll say technically C5 seems just a bit more capable, though the difference to my ear is pretty small. I'll have to put HA-2 to measurement as well as carefully A/B'ing to really tell them apart, which I haven't done yet. But at least to my ears they are about equally good so fa
Interesting to hear. Looking at C5D and Ha-2 myself, though not really to pair with A10 (also the Leckerton UHA6 aaaargh mentioned earlier and Meier PCSTEP, maybe Creative E5). Seems like there are so many more good options now in relatively affordable price range compared to 5 or 6 years when I got my last dac/amp. Maybe I will just 'eenie meenie, miny, moe' to decide.