I’d like to extend a special thanks to Tom Dolfi, without whom this review – written on the other side of the world at the foot of Africa – would not have been possible. Thank you also goes to Maurizio, Claudia, Francesca, and the rest of the Gold Note team in Florence. We have no affiliation with Gold Note other than a professional relationship, and the opinions expressed in this review are entirely our own.
Introduction – An Italian Overture
Gold Note is one of the few hi-fi houses that still thinks like a system maker. From its base just outside the magical city of Florence, the company designs and assembles everything in-house with a largely Italian supply chain, an approach that prizes short signal paths, tactile interfaces, and the sense that every box belongs to a coherent family. –
The factory runs on lean-manufacturing principles (2000m² facility, product-line component organisation, individual end-of-line testing), and the brand’s identity is explicit: authentically made in Italy, research-driven, and system-first.
The HP-10 is Gold Note’s first dedicated headphone amplifier, created to bring that “systems” sensibility into head-fi. The Deluxe version adds a DAC to complete a modern digital front end so it can stand alone as an all-in-one. Crucially it keeps all tone-shaping in the analogue domain. The idea is to preserve musical flow while giving practical control over headphone behaviour.
But specifications and manufacturing philosophy tell only part of the story. The HP-10 Deluxe reveals its true character not in bullet points but in the way it organizes musical events – the space between notes, the weight of silence, the inevitable rightness of phrasing. This is an amplifier that thinks in sentences rather than words.
Design and build
HP-10’s visual language is pure Gold Note: compact, stackable, and quietly premium. The milled-aluminium casework is tightly fitted; the front panel pairs a crisp touchscreen with a silent “Single Knob Control” encoder.
I want to make special mention of the build quality and industrial design here, because in my opinion it’s exceptional. Running my fingers over the smooth metal surface with its shark-like ventilation grilles basically ‘screams’ premium, but in that understated ‘yes, I know I’m gorgeous’ way.
There’s not a detail missed here, every edge is absolutely clean, the metal plating is visibly thick and sturdy, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the separate blue and red LEDs on the PCB are lined on opposite ends of the chassis, shining through the grilles when powered up to give the whole assembly a classic sportscar-like glow.
For connectivity, you get four headphone outputs: 3.5mm, 6.3mm, 4.4mm balanced, and 4-pin XLR. Every common termination is covered, so adapters can stay in the drawer. The HP-10’s 200×80×260mm dimensions result in a small, deeper-than-wider footprint, though incredibly solid coming in at a robust weight of 3kg. In daily use it runs warm rather than hot, ideal for long sessions or stacking with other 10-series components.
Under the lid the design is dual-mono, Class-A and fully balanced, with sensibly short paths, relay switching, and high-quality parts. The published max headphone power is 10W, which explains the unflustered headroom with difficult loads. It’s an engineer’s product wearing an Italian suit.
Functionality and use
The rear panel mirrors the front’s completeness. Analogue sources feed RCA and XLR inputs; you can send line-level out on RCA/XLR to a power amp or active speakers by selecting REAR on the screen.
The Deluxe model adds USB-C for hi-res computer / tablet / phone audio (PCM up to 768kHz; DoP and native DSD up to DSD512), plus Bluetooth 5.1 with aptX HD for convenience. Digital conversion is handled by AKM’s AK4493SEQ DAC – a clean, modern implementation that lets the HP-10 operate as a one-box hub when you don’t want outboard gear.
A GN Link 12V trigger enables integration into a larger rig, and there’s a multi-pin PSU-10 EVO port. A second USB-C is dedicated to firmware updates.
Everyday control is frictionless. The touchscreen lays out input, output, volume, and status at a glance. The included full-function remote covers power, volume, mute, input selection, and on-screen navigation. Gold Note’s “Complete Control” note in the manual is not marketing fluff: between the remote, touchscreen display, and rotary knob, you can effortlessly adjust virtually every setting from your chair.
One thoughtful touch is Bypass: select a headphone output and put the HP-10 in standby, and the unit automatically clears the rear line path, so a speaker preamp stays wired and ready – though this requires that you keep source and preamp on the same wiring type, RCA or XLR, to behave correctly.
If there’s one niggle I feel obliged to mention, it’s the slow and unintuitive input whenever I need to cycle through or worse, enter text in Studio. Not only is text input not enabled on the touch screen, manually entering text using the remote or volume dial is cumbersome at best. It’s not a big deal, given how rarely I anticipate having to input text or jog through selections, but it’s a usability faux pas that can definitely be improved in future revisions (or firmware, if that’s possible).
Continue to a deeper dive…
