Gustard H10

So, I've seen this thing get waved around on certain forums as the bestest pairing with planars like the HE-560, and possibly every other headphone under the sun. Seems like the soundstage gets particular praise.

Truth? Anyone hear this thing in comparison to something like the Asgard 2? I've already hunted around for head-to-head comparisons and haven't really found anything substantive.

 

Isn't it just a Violectric V200 clone with some minor improvements?

 

That's the thing, I was hoping someone who had heard both could comment.

 

I greatly prefer the H10 to the Asgard 1, if that's saying anything.

I find the H10 a very good value, especially for pairing with planars. It starts to become bright and strained sounding at higher gain settings so mine's set at -12 constantly. Its distortion characteristics improve with better opamps, particularly in the bass; try rolling if you find yourself dissatisfied. I'm using a pair of vintage '87 Signetic opamps myself.

That being said, I'm not super experienced with amps. I do find it much better than the Asgard 1 and Objective2 with the opamp swap, but thats about all I can say.

 

Interesting data point with the Asgard 1, thanks. I've heard the Asgard 2 is an improvement over the Asgard 1, and certainly the O2.

 

Any other thoughts on the H10? There must be someone lurking around here who has tried it.

 

So in other words, saying the H10 sounds better is not much in the way of praise.

You'd think, but despite the hype few people seem to have heard it.

 

@SteelCannon brought his to my place once to compare against my Torpedo 3 & Ragnarok using my Yggdrasil as a source for all 3 simultaneously, and it didn't fare well with any of the headphones we tried (HD650, HE400S, & especially the TH-X00 come to mind). I'm going off of memory from a few months ago, but I remember the most noticeable thing was that something seemed off with the bass/low mids with all of the dynamic headphones we tried. You may say that's to be expected because we were comparing it to more expensive gear, but I brought out my Leckerton to try with the HE400S and I thought that sounded more coherent too.

Not sure what gain settings we were using, but Steel may be able to comment further. Can't comment on how good it is with low efficiency planars or how it fares against comparably priced Schiit, but I wasn't particularly hyped.

 

I have actually done a direct comparison. Incidentally my friend @Provisus bought the H10 and I wanted to hear the V200 so I bought it myself. V200 is definitely warmer, is better at presenting lows. That said however, the H10 is more resolving, definitely more neutral and had a much more clear sound to it. Also better at low level details. Tested with HD800s with a Hugo at the time as the DAC. FWIW.

Personally I dislike the fact that the H10 copy and pasted the V200 as a design so relentlessly, that said however I would personally say H10 > V200 in terms of sonics and definitely value. So whatever they did, to me, sounds better.

 

I've owned the H10 for 9 years now, and for better or worse, have transitioned through some gear with it. Thought I'd weigh in with some of my experience, while setting a new guinness record for necrobumps. Have used a Schiit Magni (2?), Vali (1 and 2+), Little Dot MKII, Xduoo XD05+ together with the HE-500, HD580, HD600, HD650. Also the Modi 2, Modi MB, Metrum Quad and possibly some other gear now forgotten. So lot's of entry level gear, but a rather gaping midrange amp hole. Currently using the H10 with Gungnir 1 (not sure about the revision) and Edition XS, and also still have the XD05. As I'm not very experienced in judging gear and it's differences, I'll try to stick to the more apparent stuff.

Soundstage
A lot wider than all the other amps. Sometimes a bit too wide, if that's possible? As in, coherence starts to suffer a bit. Still, preferred it to the more narrow stage of the rest, especially Magni. I find it very difficult to judge soundstage depth, the depth sounds the same to me on all these amps (rather flat).

Microdynamics, Macrodynamics and plankton
I haven't known about these concepts long, and cannot backdate them to amp experience. Would be dumb to try, especially with plankton (still don't get that one). What I can say is that Gungnir MB did a whole lot more to improve these area's than the differences in all the amps ever seemed to do. Modi MB as well. In fact, Modi MB was probably the biggest step up the ladder, with Gungnir MB expanding on it.

Slam/attack
An area where the H10 seems to score well. The outro of Blade Runner 2049 has some hefty electronics which lack weight on all the other amps. I do wonder sometimes whether that slam bleeds into distortion? HE500 + H10 + Gungnir MB especially was a real attack on the senses, as the headphone sort of attempted to rumble off my head. Edition XS came out more controlled.

Neutrality
Again a tough one, I'll try to compare to the XD05. So the Xduoo sounds very balanced to me. No part of the presentation stands out particularly good or bad, no sins of comission as they say here I think? Makes it a relaxed listen, but also doesn't engage me the way Gungnir + H10 does. An issue with the H10 is hot treble on standard and elevated gain settings. On the HE-500, which already sounds a bit excited in that area, this becomes a real issue and leads to fatigue quickly. With the more sensitive and somewhat less trebly Edition XS I can set the gain to -12, and treble issues leave.

Timbre
If I had to choose something to compare with it would be the HD650 + Vali+. That combo has good timbre to me, and the H10 + a planar sounds more, I don't know, aritifical? Could be the Hifiman is more at fault here, but timbre might not be the H10's strong suit.

Would be curious to hear what others think of the H10 compared to more recent stuff like the Lyr+ or Mjolnir 3, if they've compared them directly. The H10 got some hype back in the day, but how much was valid / still holds up.