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Gustard X18 Review (Stereo DAC)

Rate this DAC:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 7 2.7%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 2 0.8%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 21 8.0%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 231 88.5%

  • Total voters
    261

deafenears

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if it wasn't as heavy I would have picked that one....enjoy :)
IMO, the X18 isn't that much heavier than the D1SE - X18 2.5kg (with package, whatever that means) vs. 1.64kg of the D1SE. Way less than the 7kg of the X26.
 

MalinYamato

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IMO, the X18 isn't that much heavier than the D1SE - X18 2.5kg (with package, whatever that means) vs. 1.64kg of the D1SE. Way less than the 7kg of the X26.
with package perhaps mean that if you remove the aluminum enclosure it will be lighter than 2.5 kg.
 

MalinYamato

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Why would you remove the aluminium case?
just my joke about its weight probably due to a very nice sturdy enclosure making it a tank, a military-grade DAC for use by the heavy artillery during combat. It's gear for masculine guys to show that they are alpha males. For us ladies, we need something cute and light that we may carry around. D1SE is more for ladies with its display that has beautiful red diagonal stripes. Those spikes on it resemble my very high heel shoes.... :)
 
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Snoopy

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just my joke about its weight probably due to a very nice sturdy enclosure making it a tank, a military-grade DAC for use by the heavy artillery during combat. It's gear for masculine guys to show that they are alpha males. For us ladies, we need something cute and light that we may carry around. D1SE is more for ladies with its display that has beautiful red diagonal stripes. Those spikes on it resemble my very high heel shoes.... :)

It's probably due to the price range these DACs are placed in, that they add fancy heavy cases or to reach the Audiophile crowd some heavy transformer's.

Looks nice and gives you the peace of mind that you get more for your money.

But I'm kinda missing the point why someone would need that in a modern DAC.

The SMSL d300 and Su9 look like toys compared to the Gustard x26 but they all measure pretty much perfect.



smsl-su-9-dac-es9038pro-usb-xmos-bluetooth-50-mqa.pngdscf9169.jpgsmsl-d300-rohm-dac-bd34301ekv-xmos-xu208-bluetooth-50-32bit-768khz-dsd512.jpg
 

MalinYamato

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It's probably due to the price range these DACs are placed in, that they add fancy heavy cases or to reach the Audiophile crowd some heavy transformer's.

Looks nice and gives you the peace of mind that you get more for your money.

But I'm kinda missing the point why someone would need that in a modern DAC.

The SMSL d300 and Su9 look like toys compared to the Gustard x26 but they all measure pretty much perfect.



View attachment 198641View attachment 198642View attachment 198640
I would love to know the worlds biggest and heaviest DAC there is. Which one?
The Yggdrasil of Shiit weighs 11.34 kg and this is its board -- the heavier the better, or.... Would be fun to know why do you need all those components just to do an AD conversion considering the pictures on the right, an excellent sounding DAC and AMP -- all in one.
schiit_yggy_farbe-2p1qqe.jpg
DJI_0150.jpg
 
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Veri

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I would love to know the worlds biggest and heaviest DAC there is. Which one?
The Yggdrasil of Shiit weighs 11.34 kg and this is its board -- the heavier the better, or.... Would be fun to know why do you need all those components just to do an AD conversion considering the pictures on the right, an excellent sounding DAC and AMP -- all in one.
Well. Some things are just over-engineered to a fault :D
 

MalinYamato

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Well. Some things are just over-engineered to a fault :D
would love if things would be "engineered" towards ladies' taste more...this is my planned setup... note the red stripes on the DAC that match my attires well :) My DAC wears high heels as I do :cool::cool::cool:.
femme.png
 
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Roland68

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MalinYamato

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Well, less than 300 grams difference, about a glass of water...;)
Everyy gram counts for ladies on the move.... I need a big handsome strong masculine man to accompany me if I pursue this hobby further to carry my setup.
 

mccririck

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Did Amir miss a flaw in the X18? The latest GoldenSound video mentions something starting at 24 minutes 44 seconds:

 
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kiyu

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Did Amir miss a flaw in the X18? The latest GoldenSound video mentions something starting at 26 minutes 00 seconds:

I saw that but I couldn't fully understand, I think it's related if the files are in super bad quality there is no room for oversampling, and that causes a problem? well if someone understand that properly please let us know
Thanks!
 

mccririck

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I saw that but I couldn't fully understand, I think it's related if the files are in super bad quality there is no room for oversampling, and that causes a problem? well if someone understand that properly please let us know
Thanks!
No it's nothing to do with bad quality files.

Interestingly GoldenSound hasn't done a video on the Gustard X18 yet so it may well be his next video...
 

Snoopy

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No it's nothing to do with bad quality files.

Interestingly GoldenSound hasn't done a video on the Gustard X18 yet so it may well be his next video...


So what is it? And could this be a problem with other DACs?
 

Snoopy

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I think it's when digital music is mastered so that the peaks are very close to 0db. I agree GoldenSound didn't make it clear in his video.
Wouldn't adding a couple of -db of headroom (headroom management in roon) fix that?
 

mccririck

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Wouldn't adding a couple of -db of headroom (headroom management in roon) fix that?
As Goldensound said DACs should have digital headroom so that this isnt a problem. But it is a problem on the X18 they appear to have not wanted to sacrifice 3db of SINAD. SINAD that Amir is a little too obsessed about at the expense of missing problems like this.
 

Snoopy

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As Goldensound said DACs should have digital headroom so that this isnt a problem. But it is a problem on the X18 they appear to have not wanted to sacrifice 3db of SINAD. SINAD that Amir is a little too obsessed about at the expense of missing problems like this.


That's why I was asking if maybe other DACs might have the same Problem. That they sacrifice everything for a higher Sinad number.


But shouldn't digital clipping be show up in the measurements if amirm does these tests?
 

MalinYamato

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As Goldensound said DACs should have digital headroom so that this isnt a problem. But it is a problem on the X18 they appear to have not wanted to sacrifice 3db of SINAD. SINAD that Amir is a little too obsessed about at the expense of missing problems like this.
would a 3db degradation of SINAD make a difference to human ears?
 
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