When I saw a notification to update firmware, I did so. Unfortunately, the new firmware refused to shake hands with Roon. During the first of several WhatsApp sessions with Lenzi, we enlisted my MacBook Pro to first receive, by email, and then install, via the DS-10's mini-USB port, an older firmware version that worked fine with Roon, although it did not display MQA correctly. I was assured that I was hearing MQA, that the MQA logo would be displayed when new Roon-friendly software was released, and that the sound was exactly the same as with the current firmware (footnote 1).
Another problem was that Roon sometimes had trouble locating the DS-10. With Lenzi's help, I opened mconnect and discovered that even though the DS-10 was receiving a wired signal from the Nucleus+, it was shifting between the wired connection and trying to connect to my wireless network. This problem was easily remedied by removing the DS-10 from mconnect's wireless-playback settings. After that, the DS-10, Nucleus+, and Roon synched flawlessly, and I never used mconnect again.
The DS-10 arrived during the peak of Italy's first wave of COVID-19, when Gold Note's technicians were forced to work from home. With sequestration came an unavoidable slowdown of firmware and software development. The Roon and MQA fixes could not be finalized during the review period. I'm confident it will all be sorted by the time this review is published.
At last
"Whoa!" I exclaimed just minutes after my first listen to the DS-10 (without the PSU-10 EVO, which wasn't here yet). "Is this thing really sounding as good as I think it is?" The answer: yes. Through its Ethernet port, with the Roon Nucleus+ as the source, the DS-10 easily revealed differences in two very different remasterings of David Oistrakh's historic 1967 recording of the Shostakovich Violin Concerto No.2 with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra under Kirill Kondrashin—one from Alto (Tidal 24/44.1 FLAC), the other from EMG Classical (Tidal 16/44.1 FLAC). The contrasts were obvious, with the Alto version delivering far more air, detail, life, and sense of being there. Turning to Ludwig Von Beethoven: Lieder Songs, from baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Jan Lisiecki (24/96 WAV, DG 4838351), as good and full as the DS-10 sounded, it could not convey every bit of the extra reverberation around Goerne's voice that disturbed me when I first heard the recording. (My husband thought there was something wrong with the system when he first heard it.) Nor could the DS-10 fully reveal the artificial, studio-induced distance between singer and piano as the far more expensive Rossini DAC/ Clock could. But the voice was rich, the supporting piano distinct, and the sound beautiful, pleasing, and quite musical. The DS-10 was sounding far better than I had expected.
I found myself delighted when I turned to the third movement of Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata, from cellist Hee-Young Lim and pianist Nathalia Milstein's excellent recording of Russian Cello Sonatas (24/96 WAV, Sony S80497C). Both here and on Rachmaninoff 's "Vocalise," the DS-10 conveyed the richness of the cello's sound, albeit with-out all of the air and timbral detail—the so-called microtonal shadings—of my reference.
There were lots more tracks, including "John Taylor's Month Away," from King Creosote and Jon Hopkins's Diamond Mine (Jubilee Edition) (Tidal 16/44.1 FLAC), "Journey to the Center" from the 2018 remastering of JVC Jazz Festival Presents A Night of Chesky Jazz Live (24/192 AIFF, Chesky JD435), the title track from Casey Abrams's Robot Lovers (24/192 AIFF, Chesky JD417), and Priya Darshini's "Jahaan" from Periphery (24/192 AIFF, hesky JD450). I ended up loving this last track so much—its mixture of compelling musicianship with astounding depth, percussive effects, and a plethora of audiophile bells and whistles—that I used it throughout the review period.
When I switched the Nucleus+'s output to USB and used the dCS Network Bridge to compare the DS-10's AES/EBU and S/PDIF inputs, I found sound quality through AES/EBU equal to that through USB. AES/EBU produced clearer, deeper sound than the coaxial input. The DS-10's Ethernet input, though limited to 24/192 and DSD64, was the most transparent of the lot. "I could live with this for the rest of my life," I scribbled in my notes as I discovered how clearly I could discern the timbre of period instruments on Cecilia Bartoli's remarkably intimate, breathtakingly beautiful performance of "Leggi almeno tiranna infedele" (At least, you cruel and faithless woman/Read this document soaked in tears") from Ottone in Villa on her marvelous Vivaldi (24/96 WAV, Decca 002894834475) with Ensemble Matheus and Jean-Christophe Spinosi.
To get a clearer handle on the DS-10's performance, I hooked up the Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ to the Nucleus+ via USB—as noted above, the Brooklyn DAC+ doesn't accept Ethernet—and compared DACs. The DS-10 delivered richer colors, better-defined leading edges, and more air on the Rachmaninoff tracks for cello and piano. In far more complex, emotionally emphatic, and dynamically explosive music—the second movement ("The Ninth of January") from Shostakovich's Symphony No.11, "The Year 1905," performed live by Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (24/96 WAV, Deutsche Grammophon 002859502-HDTracks)—there was a gray, somewhat dry aspect to the Mytek's sound that failed to engage my heart and gut. The Brooklyn DAC+ placed instruments behind and between the speakers where they belonged, but soundstage boundaries lacked definition. Dynamics were good, but drums sounded a bit boomy, hollow, and flat. Returning to the blessed Bartoli, the Brooklyn DAC+ missed the silence with which the DS-10 depicted space around her voice.
Listening with headphones, the DS-10 again outperformed the Brooklyn DAC+ in multiple respects, including transparency and color saturation. Although I couldn't use a network connection with the Brooklyn DAC+, the Ethernet input further improved the DS-10's headphone playback. Drums on Priya Darshini's "Jahann" were more convincing and surrounded by air. Depth also improved. The DS-10's headphone preamp put more emphasis on midrange fullness than treble clarity. I'd love to hear Herb Reichert's opinion, and I suspect that he'll want to try 'phones and speakers with the DS-10 after he reads this review.
Preamp time
With the DS-10 feeding the MBL N11 preamp, the sound grew warmer, with the satiny glow and finish I've come to expect from the finest preamp Technical Editor John Atkinson has yet measured. The N11 had more of a performance-elevating effect on the DS-10 than on the Rossini DAC/Clock. When I dragged the husband away from his iPad and into the music room, he liked the live presence that the N11 brought to the sound but also preferred the DS-10's less focused, more diffuse presentation to the Rossini's well-defined leading edges. "It's a case of do you prefer impressionism or photography?" he said, as befits a relationship rooted, in part, on opposites attract.
I noted how the Rossini opened up the soundstage and was able to delineate the distinct lines of piano and cello. Those lines were by no means etched—the blend sounded natural—but instrumental flavors were not lost in a thick DAC soup. Ultimately, the DS-10 lacked the Rossini's large embrace—its openness, largesse, and willingness to show all sides, colors, and shades of music with equanimity. The husband smiled weakly and returned to his iPad.
The PSU-10 EVO power supply
Adding the PSU-10 EVO to the DS-10 produced a major improvement to an already very good DAC. On the Rachmaninoff sonata, the cello ached in ways that touched my heart—the Rossini DAC/Clock combo produces a similar effect—and piano lines emerged with clarity. On "Jahaan," the weight of percussion and instruments increased, and bass was clear. The Rossini combo exceled in openness, depth depiction, clarity of leading edge, color saturation, and transparency; it gave equal emphasis to treble and midrange. The DS-10/PSU-10 EVO combo, in comparison, thickened the midrange a bit, delivering sound a bit slower and in a less nimble manner. Regardless, Gold Note's little combo sounded fantastic for a package that costs less than an eighth of what the dCS duo costs.
I removed the external power supply. Now lines were a bit smudged and colors less saturated. Cellist Hee-Young Lim's full and chocolatey-rich tone lost some of its special allure and had a bit of an identity crisis with Milstein's piano: They seemed to merge when the volume and pace picked up. The Rossini delivered music with a degree of musical grace that the DS-10, with or without its optional power supply, could not equal.
Enter the PS Audio DirectStream DAC with Bridge II
Sometimes, when you evaluate several products at the same time, music devolves into a sequence of sound bites and emotions are buried under checklists. Hence my gratitude when Editor Jim Austin wrote, in response to my request for a deadline extension, "Do keep in mind that comparisons aren't really the point. Just tell readers what the experience was like, or, as [the late Art Dudley] used to say, 'Tell us what it sounds like.'" Following multiple back and forths, I wrote, then scrapped, a conclusion for this review: "I'd love to put the DS-10/PSU-10 EVO up against some somewhat higher-priced DACs, including PS Audio's DirectStream DAC ($5999) with Bridge II Network Audio Card ($899)." I took a break and gave my friend Peter Schwartzman a call. He said, "Wanna borrow my DirectStream DAC? It has the Bridge installed so you can input signal through both USB and Ethernet." I searched my brain for the perfect complex piece of music that would invite repeated listening. What better choice, in a year celebrating the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, than Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan's period-instrument recording of Beethoven Symphony No.9, Op.125, "Choral" (24/96 FLAC, BIS 2451)? I only used its first two movements—I'm waiting until I submit this review to play the rest—but since each is 14:13, I had plenty of time to settle in and see where the music led me.
Initially, I was blown away by the drive and brilliance of the DirectStream DAC (which was running the Windom OS), on tutti (everyone at once) passages. But when the line passed to solo instruments, they sounded smaller, dryer, and more separate from the larger orchestral fabric. Was this because I was listening to players who usually perform Bach, where the emphasis is often on intimacy rather than bombast? While the apocalyptic start to Beethoven's journey to universal oneness got my heart beating, I also found myself strangely unsettled by what I heard.
With the Rossini DAC/Clock, the contrast could not have been greater. The orchestra moved back in what felt like a naturally resonant hall, and newfound air around individual instruments transformed those passages from anemic to fascinating. I especially loved how, in the second movement, Beethoven passes the line from one instrument to the other, as if emphasizing how each is a part of a collective whole that's greater than the sum of its parts. The presentation felt more organic and refined, with a natural balance between the octaves that encouraged me to listen louder than with the treble-prominent DirectStream DAC. It made me want to see my way forward from Beethoven's initial militance and flashes of pain to the deliverance that was to follow.
As for the intrepid DS-10/PSU-10 EVO combo, lines were a bit smudged and less differentiated than through the other units. Colors were less saturated, and soundstage boundaries nowhere near as refined as with the dCS gear. However, solo instrumental passages were better integrated into the musical whole than through the PS Audio. The dCS Rossini DAC/Clock may have produced the most organic, refined, dynamic-yet-relaxed presentation of the three, but when it came to musical enjoyment, Gold Note's DS-10/PSU-10 EVO wasn't far behind. Both beckoned me to the "Ode to Joy" yet to come.
As a double-check, I turned to a seductive performance close to my heart, soprano Carolyn Sampson and pianist Joseph Middleton's rendition of Fauré's perfumed "Les Roses d'Ispahan" (The Roses of Ispahan) from their recording Fleurs (24/96 WAV, BIS 2102). As different as the Rossini and DS-10 sounded, both conveyed the smile, warmth, and love behind the notes in ways some other DACs miss.
Putting it all together
My reference system hasn't hosted many DACs in the Gold Note DS-10's price range. I was delighted with what I heard. This little baby sounded so good—so musical—with its optional, identically dimensioned PSU-10 EVO power supply that I'd urge anyone who can shell out $4300 to try them together. I'm not going to tell you that you should consider what you can't afford, but do keep in mind that we read Stereophile because we care about the music. Music makes a difference in our lives; it helps make us whole. Sitting on a single shelf, powered by a single power cable, Gold Note's DS-10/PSU-10 EVO has the potential to fulfill and heal in ways that extend far beyond words. It's a stellar achievement from engineers who understand what musical deliverance is all about.
Footnote 1: Jason should have been able to confirm that Roon was sending out MQA by tapping the Signal Path indicator in the Roon app's interface during playback.—Jim Austin
At last"Whoa!" I exclaimed just minutes after my first listen to the DS-10 (without the PSU-10 EVO, which wasn't here yet). "Is this thing really sounding as good as I think it is?" The answer: yes. Through its Ethernet port, with the Roon Nucleus+ as the source, the DS-10 easily revealed differences in two very different remasterings of David Oistrakh's historic 1967 recording of the Shostakovich Violin Concerto No.2 with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra under Kirill Kondrashin—one from Alto (Tidal 24/44.1 FLAC), the other from EMG Classical (Tidal 16/44.1 FLAC). The contrasts were obvious, with the Alto version delivering far more air, detail, life, and sense of being there. Turning to Ludwig Von Beethoven: Lieder Songs, from baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Jan Lisiecki (24/96 WAV, DG 4838351), as good and full as the DS-10 sounded, it could not convey every bit of the extra reverberation around Goerne's voice that disturbed me when I first heard the recording. (My husband thought there was something wrong with the system when he first heard it.) Nor could the DS-10 fully reveal the artificial, studio-induced distance between singer and piano as the far more expensive Rossini DAC/ Clock could. But the voice was rich, the supporting piano distinct, and the sound beautiful, pleasing, and quite musical. The DS-10 was sounding far better than I had expected.
When I switched the Nucleus+'s output to USB and used the dCS Network Bridge to compare the DS-10's AES/EBU and S/PDIF inputs, I found sound quality through AES/EBU equal to that through USB. AES/EBU produced clearer, deeper sound than the coaxial input. The DS-10's Ethernet input, though limited to 24/192 and DSD64, was the most transparent of the lot. "I could live with this for the rest of my life," I scribbled in my notes as I discovered how clearly I could discern the timbre of period instruments on Cecilia Bartoli's remarkably intimate, breathtakingly beautiful performance of "Leggi almeno tiranna infedele" (At least, you cruel and faithless woman/Read this document soaked in tears") from Ottone in Villa on her marvelous Vivaldi (24/96 WAV, Decca 002894834475) with Ensemble Matheus and Jean-Christophe Spinosi.
With the DS-10 feeding the MBL N11 preamp, the sound grew warmer, with the satiny glow and finish I've come to expect from the finest preamp Technical Editor John Atkinson has yet measured. The N11 had more of a performance-elevating effect on the DS-10 than on the Rossini DAC/Clock. When I dragged the husband away from his iPad and into the music room, he liked the live presence that the N11 brought to the sound but also preferred the DS-10's less focused, more diffuse presentation to the Rossini's well-defined leading edges. "It's a case of do you prefer impressionism or photography?" he said, as befits a relationship rooted, in part, on opposites attract.
Adding the PSU-10 EVO to the DS-10 produced a major improvement to an already very good DAC. On the Rachmaninoff sonata, the cello ached in ways that touched my heart—the Rossini DAC/Clock combo produces a similar effect—and piano lines emerged with clarity. On "Jahaan," the weight of percussion and instruments increased, and bass was clear. The Rossini combo exceled in openness, depth depiction, clarity of leading edge, color saturation, and transparency; it gave equal emphasis to treble and midrange. The DS-10/PSU-10 EVO combo, in comparison, thickened the midrange a bit, delivering sound a bit slower and in a less nimble manner. Regardless, Gold Note's little combo sounded fantastic for a package that costs less than an eighth of what the dCS duo costs.
I removed the external power supply. Now lines were a bit smudged and colors less saturated. Cellist Hee-Young Lim's full and chocolatey-rich tone lost some of its special allure and had a bit of an identity crisis with Milstein's piano: They seemed to merge when the volume and pace picked up. The Rossini delivered music with a degree of musical grace that the DS-10, with or without its optional power supply, could not equal.
Enter the PS Audio DirectStream DAC with Bridge IISometimes, when you evaluate several products at the same time, music devolves into a sequence of sound bites and emotions are buried under checklists. Hence my gratitude when Editor Jim Austin wrote, in response to my request for a deadline extension, "Do keep in mind that comparisons aren't really the point. Just tell readers what the experience was like, or, as [the late Art Dudley] used to say, 'Tell us what it sounds like.'" Following multiple back and forths, I wrote, then scrapped, a conclusion for this review: "I'd love to put the DS-10/PSU-10 EVO up against some somewhat higher-priced DACs, including PS Audio's DirectStream DAC ($5999) with Bridge II Network Audio Card ($899)." I took a break and gave my friend Peter Schwartzman a call. He said, "Wanna borrow my DirectStream DAC? It has the Bridge installed so you can input signal through both USB and Ethernet." I searched my brain for the perfect complex piece of music that would invite repeated listening. What better choice, in a year celebrating the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, than Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan's period-instrument recording of Beethoven Symphony No.9, Op.125, "Choral" (24/96 FLAC, BIS 2451)? I only used its first two movements—I'm waiting until I submit this review to play the rest—but since each is 14:13, I had plenty of time to settle in and see where the music led me.
As a double-check, I turned to a seductive performance close to my heart, soprano Carolyn Sampson and pianist Joseph Middleton's rendition of Fauré's perfumed "Les Roses d'Ispahan" (The Roses of Ispahan) from their recording Fleurs (24/96 WAV, BIS 2102). As different as the Rossini and DS-10 sounded, both conveyed the smile, warmth, and love behind the notes in ways some other DACs miss.
Putting it all togetherMy reference system hasn't hosted many DACs in the Gold Note DS-10's price range. I was delighted with what I heard. This little baby sounded so good—so musical—with its optional, identically dimensioned PSU-10 EVO power supply that I'd urge anyone who can shell out $4300 to try them together. I'm not going to tell you that you should consider what you can't afford, but do keep in mind that we read Stereophile because we care about the music. Music makes a difference in our lives; it helps make us whole. Sitting on a single shelf, powered by a single power cable, Gold Note's DS-10/PSU-10 EVO has the potential to fulfill and heal in ways that extend far beyond words. It's a stellar achievement from engineers who understand what musical deliverance is all about.
Footnote 1: Jason should have been able to confirm that Roon was sending out MQA by tapping the Signal Path indicator in the Roon app's interface during playback.—Jim Austin
