Sound
First, the G3’s gain stage is good, just not perfect, for earphone users. Like the Oppo HA-2, the volume setting of your device determines the signal level the G3’s DAC is fed. Which is great because the G3’s gain is just slightly too aggressive for sensitive earphones like Ultrasone’s IQ. If my iPhone’s volume is set to 100%, I can’t get the G3 to feed me balanced signals between left and right at comfortable listening levels. By lowering that volume to about 65%, BAM! perfectly balanced signal from the G3’s at about a 9:30 o’clock turn of the volume pot.
Also like the HA-2, the G3 outputs obvious levels of hiss through sensitive earphones such as the Ultrasone IQ, and to lesser degrees, through FitEar’s MH335, Grado’s GR10, etc. That hiss isn’t too much, but it’s there. Be forewarned.
What you’ll notice is that the G3 is a bit forward-sounding. It’s got excellent, round, and detailed bass and a smooth-ish, wide midrange with a bit of sheen. It’s a foot-tapper. It’s made for Springsteen.
It packs a lot of power which is well-backed by very good current at all volume levels. Earphones of any impedance are completely stable, no matter the bass your music kicks out. Even direly low, nearly inaudible bass signals, a la the sort that comes out in Markus Schulz’s Mainstage, are penetrative, detailed, and throaty.
Lovers of trance and EDM will find that the G3 has ample sparkle up top. Separation is good from top to bottom, and the feeling of space is very good. While it’s not swimmingly wide, the G3 casts a round sound stage as deep as it is wide. Contrast, being tip-top, magnifies the details within that stage.
Then there’s Ice Cube. If the G3’s stock settings don’t Do Ya Thang quite like you like, turn up the bass. Shit. It’s crazy. Turning it full-stop is too much. It causes my IQ, Alpha Dog, and to a lesser degree, my DT880 to bottom out. The hit comes a bit too much in the upper bass region. What once was duff duff duff becomes wham! wham! wham!, definition trailing behind. 100% is mucho much. I suggest 50-75% as a maximum. As long as you stay within those bounds, or under them, the experience is godly. Bass amplification is subtle until about 30%. After that it is hard hitting, deep, and reformative. Within safe bounds, it is smoothly detailed, and progressive. Whammy as it can become, 100% has its uses.
Your mileage may vary.
I’ve got bass set to 50% now. The headphones are the Beyerdynamic DT880/600 (which I have now running at low gain and the volume pot set to 11 o’clock). My eyeballs are rattling over my Clamcase Pro.
Which is to say that the G3 is capable. It is multi-functional. If you want it, it has bass out the wazzoo. Or, it has it in your wazzoo.
Its DAC is even better. Sure, the G3 lacks an optical input, but I’ve been over that for a while. This machine works flawlessly with any of my iOS Lightning iDevices, and with my Mac. I’ve not gotten it to work with my iPod Nano. That laid aside, the G3 is almost perfectly plug-and-play.
I didn’t mention the one plug-and-play issue in my review of the Oppo HA-2. That is, when you unplug it and then plug it back in, sometimes your iDevice will give you the message: this device uses too much power. The same goes for the G3. If that happens, just turn off and unplug the G3, or HA-2. Then plug it back in. All should be good.
One of the standout features of the G3 is its out-of-box support for DSD and pretty much anything else you can throw at it. It’s awesome with every thing I’ve plugged into it. But best of all, there’s only one USB port. No need for two cables, one for computer, one for iDevice. Photographers, designers, and heavy users of downstream audio/video devices will LOVE that it it uses mini-USB. Any company that makes it simple to enjoy downstream audio devices deserves big points.
Which deserves the question: which is better, G3 or HA-2? Well, it’s not easy to answer. Both pack a lot of functionality at their price points. Both sound freaking awesome.
The HA-2 is much larger. It is also machined better. It is a jewel. While not nearly as pretty, the G3 is easier to use, supports native DSD decoding, has a better bass amplification engine, and is readier for the rough and tumble. Both units’s volume pots double as ON/OFF switches. Both units power headphones equally well, and both hiss a bit more than is necessary. I give the nod to the G3’s gain stage. Barely.
If you were to ask me the stupidest question in the world: ‘Nathan, based solely on sound quality, which do you prefer?’.
Oh god. First: sound quality isn’t even a metric for most audiophiles. It all comes down to one thing: personal preference. Our world is an uneducated quagmire of interpretive truth. Second: there is much, much more to audio equipment than just ‘sound quality’.
That said, my preferences — illiterate audiophiles, go ahead and read this as ‘sound quality’, you know you want to — roll with the G3. Its slightly more laid back signature gels more with my 35 year-old self. At 24, I might prefer the HA-2’s forwarder signature hands-down. Your mileage may vary. In absolute performance terms, both are roughly equal. There’s not much between them. So I’ll go back to being 35. I left my tinkering days behind in my early twenties. I no longer program. Nor do I build computers. I don’t even bother making headphone cables anymore.
Everything I use must needs work like a finely-crafted tool. I want plug and play. I want simplicity. I totally dig that the G3 does all digital conversions through one in-port, and that a mini-USB. It makes it so easy to use with a computer, or an iPhone. But the HA-2 works with an iPod Nano. But then again, its battery lasts about 1/3 as long as the G3. But then again, the HA-2’s hiss is more laid back.
Hmmm.
The clincher for me is this: I hardly ever use amps or DACs portably. It’s all computer for me. Which means I want something that works with the same cables/ports I use with my Wacom tables and card readers. Sound preferences — or quality, whichever you think you mean — aside, the G3 it is.
End Words
Microshar’s latest DAC/amp is well-stacked. 380$ isn’t chump change, but considering what you get for it, and how well what you get does, it’s 380$ well spent. The G3 powers my DT880/600 really well. Ditto the Alpha Dog. Into low-Ω earphones it puts a lot of voltage and plenty of current to keep SQ tip top. Then there’s its interface: a single USB input makes the G3 easy-breezy to use. All ports are reinforced, and its bass, which can rattle the eyes, can be set from zero to too much. Oh yes, and it decodes DSD.
Other than not playing nice with my iPod Nano, the G3 has no real downsides. It is a superb downstream audio device for your portable and computing uses, and it will power your headphones just perfectly.
I’d love to toast it with a pint of Kilt Lifter, but I’m not sure that’s American enough for this Springsteen fan.
Here are the G3’s specs
d marc0
Thanks for the review Nathan!
Is the hiss on the G3 any worse than the JDSlabs C5D when using sensitive IEMs such as the FAD Heaven V?
ohm image
I do not have the JDSlabs C5D to compare. The hiss is on part in pitch and volume with the AK100.
pieman3141
Just to clarify: You don’t need a CCK to connect the DAC to an iDevice? You can connect straight from the iDevice to a mini-USB port? When did they allow this?
dalethorn
According to this: http://microshar.org/index.php?cPath=23
it’s fully compatible. Click on the G3 picture to see the full specs.
ohm image
Exactly, that little orange cable is all that’s necessary.
pieman3141
One more question: What’s the battery life if you use the DAC? The site says “up to 35 hours,” but I’m fairly sure that’s the number if I use the analogue-in.
ohm image
To be honest, I’ve not measured it, and won’t try. Why? Because it will take at least a week. I don’t take tests on a singular basis.
I would have to have three runs of each setting: low, high, medium gain, plus bass at three different settings, plus using the DAC in the same way.
If I were really thorough, I’d even test at different input levels.
I mentioned that the battery life I got from it is long. Again, I can’t tell you how long you will get.
I used it like this: with iPhone, then when I get home, with computer. So I was constantly charging it.
But I never ran out of battery now matter how hard I used it.
gagoo
I have a grado PS 500 and a senn HD 650, which amp would make better friends with them? The oppo or the microshar?
ohm image
They are two very different sounding headphones. For the basic like-cures-like thinking, the HA-2, being slightly more aggressive, would pair with the aggression of the PS500, and the HD650 would pair well with the marginally more laid back G3.
Or, vice versa.
Both are nearly equally powerful in practice.
Tony
any issues with RFI/EMI when using it with the iphone? Thanks
ohm image
As with many of this sort of DAC, yes, there is, depending on how much interference and what wireless signals you are using with your phone. It’s not high-pitched interference, and I experienced it only three times or so that annoyed me. Par for the course.
Anthony Kimball
“sound quality isn’t even a metric for most audiophiles.
It all comes down to one thing: personal preference. Our world is an
uneducated quagmire of interpretive truth.”
Bless you Nathan.You were able to articulate something that has been swimming around in my noggin for some time. Well said.
…as always, thanks for the review!
dalethorn
If it were purely personal preference, there wouldn’t be any standards and you’d need 100 different headphones to play most music. Relativism is a tool that gets around dogma when used correctly, but shouldn’t be overused.
Anthony Kimball
I’m in full agreement with that! I was responding more towards “Our world is an
uneducated quagmire of interpretive truth.” It just seems that with audio (much like the world as a whole, I guess) there is a tendency to jump to the “right” answer, i.e. which headphone (…amp…dac…speaker…) is the “best”. For me, that gets tiresome. Specs and graphs definitely have their place, especially the better you get at reading them. But, we are all human, and have different preferences, which the best reviewers take into account.
dalethorn
Yeah, you got the 4-1-1 on that.
ohm image
Anthony, thank you for the commentary. You and I are on the same page. Fortunately, a lot of manufacturers in have in the last few years paid attention to making great-performing gear that adheres to industry metrics. The G3 is one of those.
Anthony Kimball
Thanks again for the review…it has put the G3 firmly on my radar. We certainly seem to be in a “golden age” for audio products…with more manufacturers understanding the implications of the Harman response curve, and the exploding interest in personal audio, I am very excited for what the future holds.
ohm image
You know, the present isn’t bad at all. I got into this thing back in 2004 or 2003 and it was a mess. Why? Consumers knew nothing except the mantra (that still drones on):
You need an amp, you need an amp.
But many of the amps back then were only good for powering big headphones and were much worse than any DAP for earphones. Today, that amp is a rarity. But still, you will find the odd amp that performs poorly.
What I’d like to see is companies like Microshar license their amp/DAC tech to DAP makers. I want a compact, screenless DAP that has an awesome amp.
The G3 has the lushness that’s more akin to Vorzüge, but the DAC incorporation that makes it great for everything.
Robert Nicholson
Does it come with cable or did you have to use the additional cable that costs $110+ ?
ohm image
The orange cable seen here is an extra. I works like a charm, but you have to dish out for it.
Robert Nicholson
Right then then that does push the cost closer to the $500 mark then.
ohm image
You can get on with cheaper cables. This one works beautifully though.
dalethorn
I have some little 6-inch Lightning to USB-A cables – either Belkin or Mophie, and they should work great with little potential to pick up stray signals.
Edit: My Mophie cables are only 4-1/8 inches tip to tip, and they are better shielded than the other brands.
Tibor
Very nice thank you. Have you tried it with Sony A15 player? Or could you? I bought it recently and it plays very well together with Aedle headphones, I just sometimes need a little more power! I am considering Oppo, but this one has nice bass control, which I like. Thank you!
ohm image
I do not own the Sony A15, nor do I have plans to purchase one. If I can borrow one, I’ll be happy to review it. I hope you enjoy your phones.
Tibor
I decided to buy the Sony player after reading a good review in Tone magazine (and many others of course). The amp in it is a bit bright and it adds a bit of sparkle to the top end of my Aedle, so very nice, I really like this combo. Thank you!
ohm image
Have you tried the G3 with the Sony, or are you alluding to the A15 being good for your Aëdle?
Tibor
No no, I haven’t, I was talking about amp in Sony player 🙂
Robert Nicholson
It is odd that despite the HA-2 getting coverage everywhere and you saying you preferred the G3 to it that there’s little to no cover of the G3 anywhere except your article.
Headfonia_L.
That’s because the G3 is brand new from a newer company. Give it some time to let people discover it.
ohm image
Microshar have been around for a long time. They are a much much smaller company, and from what I gather, nearly a family shop. They have never had much fanfare, but their products are well received.
dalethorn
I don’t have my HA-2 today because of the unbelievably evil Post Office, who apparently can refuse to deliver packages when a communal package box is full.
Anyway, my experience with 2 Apple-compatible DACs/amps is limited to the Beyer A200p and v-moda Verza. Other than the general level of crud or very low-level distortion that the A200p has, I don’t detect any significant difference in tone or other aspects of the sound quality between these 2 DACs/amps. I hear a big, big difference between these Apple-compatible amps and computer DACs like the Microstreamer, and even more difference when an amp like the Portaphile is used with the Microstreamer.
I’m not expecting the HA-2 to actually sound significantly better than my current Apple DACs, but I always welcome a positive surprise.
Eric Yu
I have recently bought the G3 and have been having troubles with it; the sound is amazing, however the DAC portion seems to break very easily. If you use a normal 3.5mm male to male connector, it might break the “internal connector of the input connector jack” (quote microshar support) and you will lose left hand audio when using the DAC. The 3.5mm input jack and the DAC are connected in that when something is plugged into the 3.5mm input jack, it will automatically by-pass the DAC. Therefore it is possible that the connection between the two can be disrupted. Being that this is a “high quality DAC/AMP” I would have expected any normal 3.5mm connector to work, let alone not break this “high quality” DAC/AMP. I might even have to pay for repairs for the second DAC that was sent to me (I figured out the problem after the DAC portion stopped fully working AFTER I plugged the G3 into my andrioid through 3.5mm male connectors) even though I was using a normal 3.5mm connector… Instead I’ll probably have to buy one of their 3.5mm connector cables and pay for shipping and pay for repairs and pay in time to wait for it to come back to me AGAIN. for 380$ I’d rather have a working DAC/AMP than just an AMP with a non-functioning DAC. But will I buy from Microshar again? depends how fast their 24/7 customer support gets back to me (been 3 days) with an estimate for repairs.
Tony
that sounds ridiculous. Microshar is saying that you cannot use 3rd party mini to mini’s with the amp because it shorts out the DAC connection to the amp? What about the third party cables damage the analog input? Are the microshar cables shaped differently?
Eric Yu
I don’t know, but this is a real problem that I have. “Our technical support tested your damaged G3 and find out the problem was a physical damaged to the internal switch of input connector jack. Before using the new G3, please use the high quality 3.5mm stereo plug for analog input (the regular cheaper brand 3.5mm connector cable are not recommended with this high end DAC).” (Quote Support). Even though this might be a problem, Microshar is always there with great customer support. Even though I have to buy their 3.5mm cable, I believe it’s worth it in the long run… as long as I don’t lose the cable….
ohm image
That sounds a bit silly. I hope that this design flaw (and if widewpread, I believe it is a design flaw) is addressed.
Albert C
Does the lightning to mini usb cable work with other amplifiers? namely the ibasso d-zero amp?