Amir, sooner or later, will have to give a good thought to his work to keep adding value. A big veritical line on the SINAD charts, at the lowest DB the best human ear has been able to discern would help to put the focus in the places where exist room for improvement.
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Gustard X16 Balanced MQA DAC Review
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
Amir, sooner or later, will have to give a good thought to his work to keep adding value. A big veritical line on the SINAD charts, at the lowest DB the best human ear has been able to discern would help to put the focus in the places where exist room for improvement.
When you get the ADI let us know how it perform
renaudrenaud
Major Contributor
We also have engineers like the ones who build RME ADI.
And also when you've figured out how to work it ;-)
I love my ADI-2 but I have to say it has the most unintuitive UI of any device I have ever owned. It is an immensely powerful piece of equipment but absolutely mind bogglingly complicated to do anything other than turn it on.
I find that as long as I look for the two circles, it makes sense. The circle with the "1" inside shows what changes when you turn the top knob, and the circle with the "2" inside shows you what changes when you turn the bottom knob. The equalizer doesn't use this cue and takes a bit more getting used to.
I thought it was closer to Custard.
With the Topping I can choose whether it is RCA, XLR or BOTH, and it does not require entering special menus – just pressing a button on the provided remote. This is one thing I like and use a lot. I connect my Purifi/Neurochrome power amp via XLR and the Topping L30 via RCA and can easily switch from speakers to cans in a jiff.
Does the X16 offer a similar functionality? Ergonomics count. Also, I like the large volume display on the Topping D90, I like that it is less tall, I dislike the old SONY-like dotted logo on the newer Gustard products. All these things count. At that point, 1 less Db in SINAD is something I can easily live with.
Last edited:
kopczas
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Also, how to turn on/off power? with remote control only? Or it turns on/off after enable/disable input signal automatically?
No politics please... It always just ramps up.
Thanks.
Thanks.
Hello everyone. I've never had any hi fi gear before except for a bit better than poor headphones.
I've spent few weeks reviewing all the market, learning stuff... ended up here. Kudos to @amirm for his work, i now feel more or less on track on what i need to actually look for when looking into these producs.
I've now ended up with two products in my planned set-up, but it's not yet set in stone - GUSTARD DAC-X16 and AUDIOPHONICS MPA-S250NC XLR
Q1 - would it be beneficial adding a tube pre amp like Schiit Saga, as it seems I don't really need it for volume control or anything.
Q2 - It's a tough choice for me to understand what i'm buying without actually listening to any of the speakers. My TOP 3 contenders are Elac Debut Reference DBR-62 (500 Eur), Focal Aria 906 (900 Eur) and floorstand Focal Aria 826 (1300 Eur). Are the Arias worth the almost twice or 3 times higher price in comparison to Elacs. I guess i might wait for Elacs to produce floorstanding Reference 6.2s.
Everyone is highly appreciated to chime in with your proposals - might ping me personally not to spam in this thread.
I've spent few weeks reviewing all the market, learning stuff... ended up here. Kudos to @amirm for his work, i now feel more or less on track on what i need to actually look for when looking into these producs.
I've now ended up with two products in my planned set-up, but it's not yet set in stone - GUSTARD DAC-X16 and AUDIOPHONICS MPA-S250NC XLR
Q1 - would it be beneficial adding a tube pre amp like Schiit Saga, as it seems I don't really need it for volume control or anything.
Q2 - It's a tough choice for me to understand what i'm buying without actually listening to any of the speakers. My TOP 3 contenders are Elac Debut Reference DBR-62 (500 Eur), Focal Aria 906 (900 Eur) and floorstand Focal Aria 826 (1300 Eur). Are the Arias worth the almost twice or 3 times higher price in comparison to Elacs. I guess i might wait for Elacs to produce floorstanding Reference 6.2s.
Everyone is highly appreciated to chime in with your proposals - might ping me personally not to spam in this thread.
zachery2006
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X16 is dual ess 9068. Now my question is X16 or Soncoz sgd1? I’m trying to decide which one to buy.
Pdxwayne
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I almost got Smsl SU 9. But I was not sure about Smsl quality control. My first DAC purchase this year was Smsl m500 and it came with defective screen. Pretty bad first impression.
It looks like I might get this one. I like my Khadas Tone Board, but I do wish for a display, remote, and xlr out. Any comments about quality control of Gustard DAC? Thanks!
It looks like I might get this one. I like my Khadas Tone Board, but I do wish for a display, remote, and xlr out. Any comments about quality control of Gustard DAC? Thanks!
Cannot tell you about qc generally but my my Gustard A18 does its work well continously for like a week now and every other reports I've read here and on the internets are praising build quality. In the end you never know if you catch a unit with a problem but my (little) exp. is: don't worry.
renaudrenaud
Major Contributor
One year ago, I bought 2 Topping products DOA. No problem with Amazon, but one year later I cannot resist and I am ordering again some Topping products.
Frankly speaking, two years ago I've seen Gustard products and found the name is ridiculous (sound like mustard for me), surely bad products from China. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying China is only producing bad products, but the country was not, by this time, identified as great audio gear producer.
Two years later, surely because of ASR, I bought plenty of Chinese products from SMSL, Sabaj, Topping, and now Mustard, err, sorry, Gustard.
I understand your pretty bad impression, but things change.
Also, I lived in China, loved the country and the people, and I am more than happy to see these Chinese brands send some lessons to the audiophile community.
This comment didn’t make sense, when DACs keep getting cheaper! Whether you disagree or dislike MQA, it doesn’t affect the sound quality listening to regular FLACs or native DSD!
Veri
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Depends on how close they follow MQA reference implementation... see for example
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...dsd-pro-dac-with-comparisons.6119/post-137281
Mytek liberty: " Looks like the MQA processing is messing with audio level and polarity. ". Not to mention hard clipping... super lousy filtering...
renaudrenaud
Major Contributor
Anyway you pay for the license even you do not want to use it. It sounds like the Microsoft OS sold with each computer, I do not need this shit but I've already paid for that.
kopczas
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Retail price for ESS9068 is about 15$, it`s not much so if mqa being attached into core dac does not affect other non mqa formats, it makes no difference if it`s there. That kind of performance for 15$ it`s a steal.
renaudrenaud
Major Contributor
Clearly for me that's not a price question. I just do not want MQA and I am more than sure I will never use it. Even if it's 1ct, I prefer not to give money to MQA.
But I am weak and I bought this Gustard. Because of this website (feeling guilty).
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