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HeadAmp Gilmore Lite Mk2 Review (headphone amp)

Veri

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Seeing this overpriced amp get taken to the woodshed by Amir has me smiling because Kevin Gilmore is such a unpleasant curmudgeon online. He constantly disses competitors on the little backwater audio forum Head-case.org where he's considered the resident guru. Look at the SiNAND! Hilarious. And for $500? lol
My major qualm is that they refuse to do specs for their products. Like, how much does it even output? What's the THD? Nothing.
 

Tortie

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My major qualm is that they refuse to do specs for their products. Like, how much does it even output? What's the THD? Nothing.

Right. Shady business practices. Headamp sells a portable amplifier called the Pico. It runs off a pair of 9v batteries, either alkaline or rechargeables. On the product page for the Pico it states that they recommend EBL lithium ion 9v batteries and there's a Amazon link to the specific battery product. Turns out those EBL batteries are garbage. I reached out to a battery expert (retailer) and he told me he hasn't found and tested any 9v lithiums that meet his company's standards. So Headamp is knowingly selling a product, claiming that it can use rechargeables, when in fact there is no a reliable rechargeable 9v lithium cells on the market.
 

Veri

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Right. Shady business practices. Headamp sells a portable amplifier called the Pico. It runs off a pair of 9v batteries, either alkaline or rechargeables. On the product page for the Pico it states that they recommend EBL lithium ion 9v batteries and there's a Amazon link to the specific battery product. Turns out those EBL batteries are garbage. I reached out to a battery expert (retailer) and he told me he hasn't found and tested any 9v lithiums that meet his company's standards. So Headamp is knowingly selling a product, claiming that it can use rechargeables, when in fact there is no a reliable rechargeable 9v lithium cells on the market.
Now to be fair, innerfidelity measured the pico/pico power and they were very respectable, at least O2 performance and portable so very good for the time. Now, perhaps not as relevant anymore. But since they are chip-based designs they perform quite well rather than their discrete counterparts.
 

Tortie

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Now to be fair, innerfidelity measured the pico/pico power and they were very respectable, at least O2 performance and portable so very good for the time. Now, perhaps not as relevant anymore. But since they are chip-based designs they perform quite well rather than their discrete counterparts.

I wasn't speaking to their audio reproduction ability but to their practicality. The choice to build the Pico Power based on a 9v battery power source limits the product. The amp eats alkalines like a monster and there's no equivalent rechargeable 9v alternative that is reliable. So Headamp is knowingly selling an impractical and barely usable product. Like I'm going to buy 100s and 100s of Duracell 9v batteries and destroy the environment. Nope
 

Moonhead

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Thanks Amir.
Makes you wonder if the KGSSHV
can live up to the hype.
 

Veri

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I wasn't speaking to their audio reproduction ability but to their practicality. The choice to build the Pico Power based on a 9v battery power source limits the product. The amp eats alkalines like a monster and there's no equivalent rechargeable 9v alternative that is reliable. So Headamp is knowingly selling an impractical and barely usable product. Like I'm going to buy 100s and 100s of Duracell 9v batteries and destroy the environment. Nope
Yeah I get your point :) I still have some 9Vs from an older amp. Wonder if they're any good.
 

Svperstar

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Not sure where else to post this but back when the Gilmore Lite was new one of the "holy grail" headphone amps I wanted was the Headamp GS-1. It was $750 in 2004 dollars:
https://6moons.com/audioreviews/headamp/gs1.html

People who owned it basically viewed it as a pure wire with gain serving up pure audio, the opposite of warm gooey tube amps. I wonder how it would compare to amps today or the mk2, it was basically seen as a turbocharged Gilmore Lite.
 

Cortes

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Thanks Amir.
Makes you wonder if the KGSSHV
can live up to the hype.

As for measurments, there is not a single reason to belive it won't be in the bottom zone of ASR charts. That has been the case of most of the devices manufactured without expensive AP units.
 

milosz

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As for measurments, there is not a single reason to belive it won't be in the bottom zone of ASR charts. That has been the case of most of the devices manufactured without expensive AP units.

I have a KGSSHV and can report that it is considerably better than any Stax amp I have listened to. The market for electrostatic amps is much smaller than for "regular" amps, so there aren't a lot of products out there. I think the basis for my love of my KGSSHV is it's additional headroom for driving electrostatic 'phones. My Stax SR-007 (original version) need a lot of voltage swing to work well, and if you are going to add the EQ needed to really improve them, you need LOTS of extra headroom over what a Stax amp can provide.

I suspect that the KGSSHV is also inherently more "transparent" than the Stax amps too, using better topologies to achieve lower distortion. Not in the same realm of the exceedingly low distortion and noise of things like the Topping amps, the Monoprice amp, etc etc, but still better than Stax in this regard. Dr. Gilmore has the instrumentation to measure THD at high voltages with a capacitive load, and he designed the amp to be low in distortion and noise. It is a "good" or possibly "very good" amp, but likely not in the realm of the stratospheric amps that users of dynamic and planar headphones can now buy.

Likely there is **NO** existing electrostatic amp that is as transparent as something like the better "regular" amps today ( like the ones with the THX modules in them ) but as far as electrostatic amps go, the KGSSHV is still head and shoulders above the stuff from Stax. The KGSSHV-Carbon and DIY-T2 are said to be a step up from the "plain" KGSSHV so maybe they have even greater transparency.

All this said, I like the sound from my SR-007's and KGSSHV better than any of my other headphone/amp combinations ( with appropriate EQ) - the next best are my Hifiman HE-6 4-screw 'phones driven balanced from a Monoprice Monolith THX amp, using Amirms's EQ. These are also quite good, but not as enjoyable as the Stax SR-007's. Not as transparent.

I almost sold my SR-007's before I bought the KGSSHV, they just did not sound very good on the Stax amps I used them with. After buying the KGSSHV I would sell all my other headphones before I would sell the SR-007's.

I am using a Schiit Modius balanced dac, FYI.
 

Turcoda

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I can attest to the KGSSHV's quality as well. It DOES live up to the hype and I highly recommend it. With that said, I suspect high voltage electrostatic amps are probably their forte. I can't speak for any of their other stuff.

As for Headamp, I would advise to buy at your own risk. I returned some items to them prior to Christmas and Justin has ignored all of my messages. Dozens of them. He acknowledged receiving the items but made 0 attempts at refunding them. Not to mention one of the items I purchased (the raal SR1a) was marked as new but sold to me as used (there was considerable hair on the headband and the box was opened). Anyway, I got scammed by Headamp and I'm now down several thousands of dollars. Currently working with the bank to try to get the money back.
 

Doodski

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I can attest to the KGSSHV's quality as well. It DOES live up to the hype and I highly recommend it. With that said, I suspect high voltage electrostatic amps are probably their forte. I can't speak for any of their other stuff.

As for Headamp, I would advise to buy at your own risk. I returned some items to them prior to Christmas and Justin has ignored all of my messages. Dozens of them. He acknowledged receiving the items but made 0 attempts at refunding them. Not to mention one of the items I purchased (the raal SR1a) was marked as new but sold to me as used (there was considerable hair on the headband and the box was opened). Anyway, I got scammed by Headamp and I'm now down several thousands of dollars. Currently working with the bank to try to get the money back.
Hmmz. I am not sure how a civil small claims court situation operates in your country. In Canada one goes to the court registry, files for a judge to analyze the case and then you have a meeting with the judge to determine if the case merits a court hearing. If the judge grants the case to have merit and accepts the case then the court case is held in the city that you filed the claim in.

Defendants hate that because they have to appear in that city. I've done this twice and was awarded both judgements.
I have also threatened 2 corporations' chief financial officers (CFO) with this and they settled within ~1-2 business days of me advising in writing (fax) that I will file for small claims court in my city.

If you have a case and you have exhausted all methods of collecting the refund then take it to the judge. It seems daunting at first but after you do it it is actually pretty easy to do. Generally small claims court does not have lawyers or allow a lawyer for one and not the other because that's not fair.

If the person or business does not pay within 30 days then you can file for a lien and they can't sell any assets till you are paid and there is a credit bureau note made about the person or business too.
 

Turcoda

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Hmmz. I am not sure how a civil small claims court situation operates in your country. In Canada one goes to the court registry, files for a judge to analyze the case and then you have a meeting with the judge to determine if the case merits a court hearing. If the judge grants the case to have merit and accepts the case then the court case is held in the city that you filed the claim in.

Defendants hate that because they have to appear in that city. I've done this twice and was awarded both judgements.
I have also threatened 2 corporations' chief financial officers (CFO) with this and they settled within ~1-2 business days of me advising in writing (fax) that I will file for small claims court in my city.

If you have a case and you have exhausted all methods of collecting the refund then take it to the judge. It seems daunting at first but after you do it it is actually pretty easy to do. Generally small claims court does not have lawyers or allow a lawyer for one and not the other because that's not fair.

If the person or business does not pay within 30 days then you can file for a lien and they can't sell any assets till you are paid and there is a credit bureau note made about the person or business too.
Holy crap, thanks for all that detailed information! I submitted some claims through Visa a few days ago. If I don't hear back or if Visa can't return the funds for whatever reason, I will be looking into doing it this way. I'm in Ottawa, so this applies to me as well. Thanks!
 

Svperstar

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I've been debating getting the "Golden Reference" power supply for my Gilmore Lite mk2.

Here is what it looks like internally. Its $300. For some reason the .jpgs won't embed so here are the links:

This is what the mk2 looks like without the "Golden Reference" power supply:

Question. Is there any point in spending the $300 on the power supply? Would it increase SINAD? Power?

I am not an Electronic Engineer. Anyone?

Thanks.
 

IAtaman

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I've been debating getting the "Golden Reference" power supply for my Gilmore Lite mk2.

Here is what it looks like internally. Its $300. For some reason the .jpgs won't embed so here are the links:

This is what the mk2 looks like without the "Golden Reference" power supply:

Question. Is there any point in spending the $300 on the power supply? Would it increase SINAD? Power?

I am not an Electronic Engineer. Anyone?

Thanks.
$300 power supply for a headphone amp makes no sense to me. Much better measuring HPA's use much simpler and cheaper power supplies.

This does not seem toe be a particularly well measuring amp. If I were you I'd not invest more into this product line but rather invest that $300 towards a better product alltogether. A lot of products will provide you with a better noise and distortion performance and much higher output power at a price lower than the power supply alone.
 

milosz

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At the time that Dr. Gilmore designed amps like this one, there were not many commercially available headphones amps of decent quality. This design is dated, and nowadays several commercially-available products far exceed it's abilities and level of transparency. Many of these amps - like the Topping and Monoprice Monolith amps can be purchased for very reasonable prices. I bought a used Monolith for about the same price as that $300 "Golden Reference" power supply.
 

Veri

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I'm sure it's a good power supply but $300 for clean power? A bit steep..
 

Svperstar

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At the time that Dr. Gilmore designed amps like this one, there were not many commercially available headphones amps of decent quality. This design is dated, and nowadays several commercially-available products far exceed it's abilities and level of transparency. Many of these amps - like the Topping and Monoprice Monolith amps can be purchased for very reasonable prices. I bought a used Monolith for about the same price as that $300 "Golden Reference" power supply.

Yes but people on Head-Fi claim that the Gilmore Lite mk2 + GRPS sounds waaaay better then the best Topping. I bough the Gilmore Lite Mk2 because of nostalgia. The first "real" headphone amp I ever bought was the original Gilmore Lite, sold it in like 2011.

I'm just wondering if it would sound better or not with the power supply.
 

Svperstar

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I'm sure it's a good power supply but $300 for clean power? A bit steep..

Yes and I just want a technical explanation of what exactly the GRPS does for the signal.
 

Jimbob54

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Yes but people on Head-Fi claim that the Gilmore Lite mk2 + GRPS sounds waaaay better then the best Topping.
They do that. A lot.
 

AudioJester

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Yes but people on Head-Fi claim that the Gilmore Lite mk2 + GRPS sounds waaaay better then the best Topping. I bough the Gilmore Lite Mk2 because of nostalgia. The first "real" headphone amp I ever bought was the original Gilmore Lite, sold it in like 2011.

I'm just wondering if it would sound better or not with the power supply.
Dont fall for head-fi hype, been a member there since circa 2006 and seen it all before.
Spend the money on a reference/instrument grade amp and compare the difference.
Headphone amps have been a solved problem for a while now, better off exploring eq/dsp etc.
 
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