PS Audio GCPH comments-opinions

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Somewhat sadly, It's doubtful now that I myself will anytime in the near future get my hands on a PS Audio GCPH, as about acweek ago, I bought a used, mint Sutherland PhD from another A-Goner for what I feel was a very excellent price.

While I have yet to recieve this Unit, I'm looking forward to it becoming a mainstay in my system.

This product too also had many nice features with a myriad of both Gain, and Loading options, and I like the idea of DC Battery Power (16 D-Cells), with no need of onboard chargers, and whatnot, versus internal, or external power supplies whish possibly be problematic for some with RFI problems.

I'm very sure the PS Audio Unit is a very fine product indeed, and it's nice to see these folks bring a product to market with what I feel are first class features, and no doubt first class performance to boot.

I'm hoping that the Sutherland though is in another league all together, and one would think the added cost reflects that.

None the less, I'm glad I initiated this thread, as I feel the more nice products like this that become available, and the better knowledge becomes about them does benefit us all, and gives us all more worthy equipment to choose from.
The GCPH does sound like a giant killer to me.
Mark

Hi all, just bought a GCPH from a fellow A'goner for $600, which I thought was a pretty good deal. I haven't recieved it yet, but I'm sure it will be a keeper. After buying a PS Audio Soloist in-wall unit, I was amazed at the build quality for a product I paid $179 for new. It also did a good job of what it was supposed to do, make my system sound better. I appreciate being able to access these posts, they helped in the decision-making process. Thanks, Dan

I have a fair amount of experience with the GCPH - I have owned it since they shipped the first batch and am a huge fan of PS Audio gear.

I recently compared the GCPH to a Tron Seven for a few days in my system.

I really had to switch back and forth quite a few few times before I was able to discern what the Tron was doing better than the GCPH. Also keep in perspective that the Tron is 4 times the cost of the GCPH. The Tron, being a tube unit that owners of Steelheads have sold to get a Seven, had a bit more 3d fleshed out , and presented more real sounding instruments. But as I said - I had to keep switching (something I could do in about 20 seconds while an LP was playing) to get a hold of the differences.

The GCPH modded by Underwood is supposedly a nice improvement.
see the review at http://www.10audio.com/psaud_gcph.htm

I had my PS Audio GCC amp modded by Underwood and the mod was a big step up from an already very good product.

I ran the GCPH into the GCC control amp with gain as well as directly into a pair of Atma-sphere MA1's these were both via XLR.

One thing I found is that with a .5mv Celebration cart, the GCPH doesn't quite have enough gain. I ended up running the GCC amp at full gain often to get a decent level. The 60db Tron had much more gain than the "66db" rated GCPH.

So while connecting directly to an amp is a great idea (and what I am doing right now while I await an H-Cat preamp) you need a high output cart or step up to make it practical.

Since the volume has no printed marks, I added my own printed scale made with a P-touch because after a certain point the (maybe 3/4 gain) the sound becomes a bit hard (PS Audio points this out in their manual) and I needed repeatable volume settings for comparisons.

If I added a transformer - the GCPH would have enough gain I'm sure, but I never invested in one since I had decided to go with the Tron.

I really do like the loading and gain options (not to mention balanced and unbalanced out) of the GCPH - the product is a winner, especially in it's price class.

That would all depend on power amp used also.