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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

Reynaldo

Active Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2021
Messages
232
Likes
97
Location
Brazil, Blumenau SC
Thank goodness there are exceptions, like miniDSP and now WiiM whose support teams are so impressive
I can say the same thing about Oppo.
I have two BD Players here, a 205 and a 103D.
Even though they are no longer producing, to this day they have excellent support.
These DAC manufacturers should try to learn something.
 

mccririck

Active Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2021
Messages
153
Likes
61
Location
Edinburgh, UK
All it would take is a firmware update reducing their peak V output slightly. That would also lower their SINAD and their rank in bar charts like ours.

Re firmware, I sent Gustard an inquiry last week using the message box on the gustard.cn support webpage and asked when they plan to release a MacOS utility for firmware updates. They replied right away that there will be no future firmware updates for the X18 and therefore no update utility. I answered that I was sorry to hear that because as a prospective customer, I hoped they would fix three problems reported here and elsewhere:
- clipping >4 V output
- jitter on SPDIF and AES inputs (worse than X18 USB, also worse than X16 SPDIF and AES)
- inconsistent V out on reconstruction filters.
They never replied further.
That's pretty shocking to hear. It's not like it's an old product, either!
 

TomJ

Active Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2019
Messages
129
Likes
177
Location
Palo Alto CA
Are you sure you update the X18's FW via USB?
How was the procedure?
I read somewhere that Gustard provided a Windows utility for the EOL X18 FW update
[edit: but I think that was mistaken, it was for installing Windows drivers]
 
Last edited:

Reynaldo

Active Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2021
Messages
232
Likes
97
Location
Brazil, Blumenau SC
I read somewhere that Gustard provided a Windows utility for the EOL X18 FW update
[edit: but I think that was mistaken, it was for installing Windows drivers]
Yes for Windows drivers there is, but it is not for FW.
I thought Gustard had fixed the problem.
 

Reynaldo

Active Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2021
Messages
232
Likes
97
Location
Brazil, Blumenau SC
Got an email from Gustard with USB FW update for X16.
Both for Windows and MAC
I believe it should also exist for the X18

 

Roland68

Major Contributor
Joined
Jan 31, 2020
Messages
1,360
Likes
1,126
Location
Cologne, Germany
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