Gustard A20H DAC/Amp Discussions | Drop

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Gustard A20H DAC/Amp

Audiophile

FULL DISCUSSION

MRiverside

Dec 13, 2018

I bought this amp a while back as a step up from my Schiit Modi 2 Uber/Magni 2 Uber stack and I have to say it was well worth it. It is well built and much heavier than you’d expect, and definitely had a bigger sound than the Schiit stack. The amp is pretty good, the dac is really good for the money, especially if you like the “velvet sound” of the AKM 4497 chip as opposed to the X-series DACs Gustard makes that use Sabre dac chips. I used the A20H dac with a Questyle CMA 600i and it substantially improved the sound of the latter unit over it’s single built in AKM 4490 dac chip. The 6 digital filters the Gustard dac offers also are fun to play with and the menus are well laid out. The amp section is a bit lacking in power but the multiple gain setting shell mitigate this somewhat. I was primarily running LCD-X’s through this when I first got it and didn’t realize I was missing anything until I got an Audeze Deckard amp (4w @ 20ohms!) and the headphones jumped up a notch in awesomeness. Perhaps a bit unfair of a comparison but consider that the Audeze amp is single-ended only. Still, most folks would be happy with the Gustard as an all-in-one for the long haul, especially at this price. And you could always keep it for the dac (don’t forget those balanced analog outs!) and upgrade your amp down the road.

Dec 13, 2018