The GA-10 amplifies the headphone signal through selected vacuum tubes rather than transistors alone. The sound takes on the roundness and texture particular to tubes, without hardness in the treble. It is an amp meant for composed listening at home.
The circuit pairs a SEPP architecture with eight tubes: four 12AX7/ECC83 and four 6P14/EL84. Amplification stays single-ended all the way to the three headphone outputs, which are fed in parallel. Volume runs through an ALPS carbon film potentiometer.
The unit takes the signal over balanced XLR or RCA, selected by a switch on the front. On the headphone side, it offers a balanced 4-pin XLR output, a balanced 4.4 mm output and a 6.35 mm output. An impedance switch matches the gain to the connected headphone, from the most sensitive to the most demanding.
The GA-10 comes from the collaboration between GoldenWave and Hifiman, for GoldenWave's tenth anniversary. It delivers 3000 mW into 300 ohms and 600 mW into 32 ohms, enough to power high-impedance headphones. Frequency response covers 20 Hz to 24 kHz, with THD+N of 0.001%.
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