[RnB180]

The site says its set to release first week of December, but I havent seen any buzz or talk about it.

Those familiar with the design of the amplifier, care to comment about the amp?

The price and thought of going balanced is really tempting.

Normally, what should one expect to hear from single ended to balanced?


Never heard a balanced rig before. But from what I read, it seems to be brighter then songle ended? not counting tubes however.

 

[sacd lover]

I got to hear tkam's balanced SFT this weekend. I was genuinely surprised how much driving the senn 650 BALANCED improved that headphone. I normally prefer the senn 600 and find the senn 650 to sound to fat ..... lacking some bass control .... and even having some upper bass/ lower midrange congestion or coloration. Furthermore, the 650 sounds to rolled off and dark at the top for my taste. With the balanced drive of the SFT my criticisms vanished. The 650 sounded as perfect as I have ever heard that headphone sound. The 650 sounded pure, clean and clear with none of the congestion or darkness that normally bothers me with this headphone. So yeah .... balanced does make a definite difference .... atleast with the SFT.

Furthermore, I didnt hear the change as more brightness. I hear more openess and spaciousness. I think the improved driver control that removes that upper bass/ lower mid congestion ..... along with the improved openess .... makes the 650 sound more neutral and less dark. Removing that congestion and top end darkness may seem to make the headphone brighter to some. I heard the change as the headphone both opening up and becoming more neutral myself.

Now ..... moving on to the GS-X. I am a big fan of the GS-1. Speculating .... that the GS-X's balanced drive will give the same kind of improvements over the GS-1 I heard with the balanced SFT.... the GS-X should be an awesome sounding amp. However since no one has heard the amp, except probably Justin, speculation is likely all you will get at this point. But going balanced certainly seems to offer tangible improvements.

 

[gpalmer]

My guess is that it will be a first-rate amplifier though not up to level of the Balanced Reference with Black Gates. Of course, it'll also be considerably cheaper but I still think the upgraded V2-SE I have is better than the GS-1. But the GS-1 is nicely engineered to give much better sound than the stock V2-SE at a lower price point and the Black Gates and other tweaks I have make my V2-SE a LOT more expensive than a GS-1. I do think you're going to hear the same sort of improvement SACD Lover is talking if you go with the GS-X...

NOTE: The post above contains certain forward looking statements which may not have any correlation to reality. It's pure conjecture without having heard the GS-X. This is dangerous since Justin usually does some serious parts upgrades in between these levels so the difference between the GS-X's performance and the GS-1s might not be comparable to the difference between the Gilmore Balanced Reference and the modded V2-SE...

 

[Salt Peanuts]

So you're getting one (Black Gates GS-X, that is) right, Greg?

I just reazlied that I forgot to listen to your V2-SE at the meet. Darn it.

 

[gpalmer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salt Peanuts So you're getting one (Black Gates GS-X, that is) right, Greg?

Nope, I'm having him build me a Balanced Reference Preamp right now. The V2-SE is a very good preamp and the Balanced Reference should truly be stellar. I wanted to many inputs for it to be done with the GS-X. The GS-X has been built so it is less labor intensive to assemble to improve both reliability and reduce the expense of building it and final dollar cost to the buyer. One thing though was I wanted a full bore preamp with 2 balanced inputs and 4 RCA ins and that wouldn't work with the GS-X or I'd have one on order. Based on how good the V2-SE is as a preamp, I think this is going to be the one they pry my cold dead hands off of!

 

[brianknewbie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gpalmer My guess is that it will be a first-rate amplifier though not up to level of the Balanced Reference with Black Gates. Of course, it'll also be considerably cheaper but I still think the upgraded V2-SE I have is better than the GS-1.

So you are convinced that the balanced GS-X with Black Gates will not sound as good as the Balanced Reference with Black Gates?

I was thinking it would sound the same but have the newer features (gain switch, etc) -- for this reason I am wondering about "upgrading" (?) from the Reference to the GS-X.

 

[gpalmer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianknewbie So you are convinced that the balanced GS-X with Black Gates will not sound as good as the Balanced Reference with Black Gates?

I sure wouldn't say I'm convinced... I tried to make it clear that this was merely idle speculation on my part. For all I know the GS-X will smoke the Balanced Reference. A lot of this is just speculation since I'm not even sure if the Black Gates will fit into the GS-X. Wish I could remember from my discussion with Justin but I can't say for certain on that point. And my comments did not have in mind the GS-X having Black Gates in it either since I was comparing the Black Gated version of the V2-SE versus the stock version of the GS-1 and likewise with the Black Gated Balanced Reference versus the stock GS-X.

Remember, Justin has had years more to develop and tweak and play and he's been steadily improving his skills so ruling it out before hand would be plain silly. For sure it will offer more tweakability in that you can swap the modules which are installed and I believe Justin has commented that the power supply has been improved over the Balanced Reference which should make for an interesting comparison.

Tell you what, someone has to take one for the team, go for it!