Gustard A26 DAC & Streamer Review

[SiamXIII]

Heavily overpriced. Topping e30 should sound the same at the fraction of its price.

Only in your wet dreams)

 

[prerich]

Heavily overpriced. Topping e30 should sound the same at the fraction of its price.

Does the E30 match the A26's build quality and aesthetics?

 

[SiamXIII]

Does the E30 match the A26's build quality and aesthetics?

E30 matches nothing, relative to Gustard A26.

 

[GXAlan]

I don't have DSD test signals. Actually I do but don't trust them.

@pkane ‘s MultiTone tool can generate DSD signals to your liking. When you ask it to generate a 1 kHz tone, it will pick something that is in the middle of the FFT but I am sure he can tweak things to your liking.

 

[xaxxon]

Please note, if you buy from shenzhen and have to send it in for warranty work, you have to pay to mail it to china (say around $80 from the US) *AND* they will tell you to lie on the customs form and that they will also be lying on the customs form when they send it back about the unit's value.

If you refuse to lie, they will charge you for doing the warranty work.

I have proof of this, if any mods need it.

 

[PeteL]

I don't see the benefit of streamer at that price. You cannot stream music from any of the music distributors like Spotify, Apple Music, etc. but you pay around $1000 extra. Why not buy a top performing Topping or SMSL DAC and an iPad? If gives you way more flexibility than this unit at less price.

Because of the wire that has to connect your Ipad to the dac? At leat in my use case the streamer is permanently hooked up to the DAC, and the I pad is the remote control to select the music from the couch or wherever I am in the house. I did not know you can't stream from spotify, with this... Apple, I get it, well... It's apple, but definetly a no go if you can't stream from music services... My Bluesound streamer certainly can stream from Tidal or Spotify, I think it's a must...

 

[pkane]

@pkane ‘s MultiTone tool can generate DSD signals to your liking. When you ask it to generate a 1 kHz tone, it will pick something that is in the middle of the FFT but I am sure he can tweak things to your liking.

The latest version of Multitone supports the exact frequency specification (not centered on an FFT bin) as long as phase is also specified, even if it's 0. For example test signals like these will not adjust to the FFT bin:

Sine 1.234Khz@90
SMPTE 60Hz@0/7k 4:1
etc.

 

[Tovarich007]

I was expecting better performance from this $1500 device. It has great reviews.

But its performance is excellent, far above the best well trained golden ears threshold !
Not the best in absolute terms, but who cares ? What do you want more ? It won't change anything for listening.
As I wrote many times, the never ending quest for the absolute best measured perf is a nonsense goal.

And the built quality seems beyond reproach. I like the two big power transformers, it changes for the better from those tiny plastic external powers sold with many cheaper Dacs.

 

[MyCuriosity]

Same all same all. Reconstruction filter nothing special at this price and if we go by measurements there are so much better options out there.

 

[Ajax]

Hopefully the addition of a streamer will encourage other manufacturers to do likewise. I would expect the additional cost to be minimal based on the Chrome-cast audio, which I think was originally only $US30. Obviously any addition would need to be bit-perfect.

At the end of the day it is the ability to stream that turns a TV into a smart TV.

In old analogue systems "all in ones" were frowned upon by audiophiles, however, I can see no reason in the digital world why DACs are sold as standalone devices and don't include pre-amp type features, that include streaming, volume control, multiple inputs, and DSP.

My experience is that a cross over (DSP) greatly enhances the listening experience, while reducing the overall cost of the system. They can also alleviate the stress on both the amplifier and the speakers.

e.g. instead of buying expensive towers my experience has been you can get a much better outcome for less money by combining a good quality bookshelf speaker (e.g. Revel M105) with 2 subs (e.g. second hand Velodyne). Such a speaker system can be had for $US1500. You could use the cross over to provide a band pass filter for the sub, so you exclude all frequencies below the music content (say 25Hz) and send everything above say 70Hz to the Revels.

FS - Revel M106 & M105 Pairs - ALL SOLD

Hi Everyone, I just finished building out a dedicated Stereo/HT space in my home and ended up not having room for all of the speakers I purchased. Originally planned this space for as many as 9.2 channels, and ended up preferring it configured as a 5.2ch setup. With that being said, I have for...

www.audiosciencereview.com

For those wishing SOTA seamless integration and an ultra smooth frequency response you can employ a microphone and REW software.

No doubt I'm off topic, however, I feel manufacturers are not capitalising on digital's potential for a better audio experience as we have little or no control over the most important parts of listening to music, the actual recording and the room in which we listen to that recording.

As Amir constantly reminds us with his use of EQ, the more help we can get via DSP the greater will be our enjoyment.

 

[beefkabob]

I find that adding this line may be a good Idea, but calling it the "threshold of hearing" is not. If we want to promote science I think we need to be rigorous with terminology and this isn't. This is an In house mathematical calculation of proven inaudibility under any circumstance of anything below that but semantically it is not threshold of hearing. Threshold of hearing refer to audiology and anything other than a SPL value does not make sense. It goes against a century of using that term for something else, like Fletcher Munson for example. I find this confusing and actually everybody have a different threshold of hearing.

Theoretical trained golden ear possibility of noticing anything wrong with test tone differences in an anechoic chamber but really most of your music is going to theoretically top out at 96 db or worse and your actual range of hearing is probably even narrower since you don't listen in an anechoic chamber so quit worrying about it threshold.

 

[mdsimon2]

I really do not like the threshold hearing line, especially with respect to noise and FFT gain.

Michael

 

[MacCali]

The Gustard added cream to my listening experience: compared to a bog standard streamer like the Pi2AES or the (bleh!!!!) Allo Boss 2, the Gustard attacks, liquidates, and beats all over the sub-$1000 competition. Still, the internal digital to analog decoder is inferior to standalones, especially the Chord DAVE + M-Scaler.

-Someone on Ad-fi, probably

Can’t take that comment too seriously, as his system may have needed what the A22 provides. With his comments about the chord it’s not too far fetched, I don’t got any disdain for Chord dacs. But I will say with certainty the m scaler prior to Amir’s review sounded like poopoo.

I own a couple streamers and I know he didn’t attack the Pi2AES. But that’s a superior streamer for the price.

 

[mdsimon2]

I'm convinced ASR had an impact on pushing the conversion performance competition

So... can we now dunk on anyone who doesn't make a perfect anti-imaging filter? Something that looks like the one in Motu Ultralite Mk5 should be the standard.

You mean the one that was incorrectly measured on ASR and actually looks like this (standard ESS minimum phase fast roll-off filter):

Michael

 

[formdissolve]

This is actually pretty nice for an all-in-one. I'd consider slimming down with this if it had multiple toslink/coax inputs.. but it actually might not be a deal breaker. Added to list! Thanks for the review

 

[Trell]

They have two 110/230 V switches and both are not clearly labeled? That seems like a smoking accident waiting to happen. Who designs something like that?

Edit: Is the voltage imprinted on the black switches themselves? It's really hard to see on the photo.

They could skip the word clock input and make that AC input universal.

 

[formdissolve]

Also, if you already have a DAC, https://ropieee.org/ exists for anyone wanting to make a basic Roon bridge on a Raspberry Pi (XL version supports uPnP, airplay, spotify, DLNA, etc).

 

[Trell]

Please note, if you buy from shenzhen and have to send it in for warranty work, you have to pay to mail it to china (say around $80 from the US) *AND* they will tell you to lie on the customs form and that they will also be lying on the customs form when they send it back about the unit's value.

If you refuse to lie, they will charge you for doing the warranty work.

I have proof of this, if any mods need it.

Depends on the consumer protection laws where you live. In EU I would buy such a device from a reputable dealer located in EU and that dealer is the one handling any warranty claims.

 

[sarumbear]

Because of the wire that has to connect your Ipad to the dac? At leat in my use case the streamer is permanently hooked up to the DAC, and the I pad is the remote control to select the music from the couch or wherever I am in the house. I did not know you can't stream from spotify, with this... Apple, I get it, well... It's apple, but definetly a no go if you can't stream from music services... My Bluesound streamer certainly can stream from Tidal or Spotify, I think it's a must...

Place the iPad next to the DAC using an 30cm cable, and dedicate an iPad for this. You have $1500 to play with after all.

 

[Bernd]

I do not have have much interest in this product: integrating as streaming module is a good idea in general. But what I want much more is a full DSP section incl. parametric equaliser, crossover etc. And the more I think about it, I'd really rather like to see a new RMI ADI 2 DAC FS that incorporates a streaming module.