With the H16 Gustard offers a high-performance headphone amplifier and pre-amplifier. Thanks to its independent ballanced and single-ended circuits and high output power level it can be used with almost all headphones. Its pre- and power amplifier units are built around LME49722 and LNE49724 chips. The ballanced headphone outputs can deliver a very high power output of 3700 mW at 64 Ω load, while providing a detailed and dynamic sound. The input circuitry features AOP OPA1642 and OPA1678 operational amplifier buffer stages. At the heart of the device an Altera CPLD and STC MCU perform their task of processing audio signals quickly while providing very low jitter. The linear power supply of the device is built around a custom-made toroidal transformer for clean power supply. The relay driven precise volume control resulting in perfectly equal signal levels on both channels.
The H16 is equipped with all common output connections, so it can be used with all types of headphones. The inputs are single-ended RCA and ballanced XLR which can be selected from the menu. The unit offers conventional RCA and ballanced XLR output connections as preamplifiers and as headphone amplifiers it offers single-ended 6.35 mm Jack and three types of ballanced headphone outputs in the form of 3.5 mm, 4.4 mm Jack and 4-pin XLR connections.