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Gustard X16 Balanced MQA DAC Review

dmac6419

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That's a whole other discussion. MQA didn't suddenly change because of GoldenOne's video. It does what it has always done, including how it's implemented in X16 and other DACs. It's not so mysterious.

The Tidal app just includes the MQA Core decoder as it has for ~3 years now; it decodes the first level (if origami is present) or upsamples (if origami isn't present). Either way the output is 2X the base sample rate (88.2 or 96KHz).

Some people may suddenly like MQA less than they did before that video (although many hated it already before). But that's nothing to do with this question about MQA through BT. We can still be scientific about this :)
I still like MQA,pork, chicken,ice cream, chocolate, etc who cares what others thinks.
 

misterdog

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Imagine though if suddenly only one flavour of ice cream were available and it was not the flavour of your choice.
Would you care then ?
 

rjley

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That must be a mistake. There is no way it COULD work in BT mode, since the stream is transcoded in the BT transmission. And in many cases also resampled. So any MQA data would be mangled.

Good catch :)
So mqa only works with usb?
 

Veri

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So mqa only works with usb?
He's literally saying "not BT", why would you conclude only USB from that? Unfolding MQA is definitely possible over the other inputs too, like coax. Plenty of people in this thread who do just that.

BT throws out data, so MQA cannot work properly over it.
 

rjley

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He's literally saying "not BT", why would you conclude only USB from that? Unfolding MQA is definitely possible over the other inputs too, like coax. Plenty of people in this thread who do just that.

BT throws out data, so MQA cannot work properly over it.
Sorry, I phrased that wrong.
 

Dannemand

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what video ?

The one linked by Frio in the post above mine.

In short, Tidal made a public version of the MQA encoder available for small artists to upload HiRes tracks. Someone managed to trick the encoder into creating its worst possible output, by telling it to encode real music while feeding it synthetic square waves and spike signals outside its encoding envelope -- and ignoring the encoder's warnings about it. The predictably poor results were then "analyzed" and posted in a video on their YouTube channel, after having been preannounced on various forums where MQA haters hang out, including ASR.

To be fair, its analysis wasn't in itself bad, just poorly premised (not understanding MQA, maybe deliberately) and misleadingly framed. And the author has shown no interest in performing similar analysis on "best effort" encoding output from real music, say using the free 2L tracks which provide multiple raw DXD recordings and MQA encodes for comparison.

The video is thought (and hoped) by many to be the final nail in the coffins of MQA and Tidal, and thus it's causing much salivation. One of the posters who dared challenge it on ASR was banned by a moderator. I might be as well for doubting orthodoxy -- although the tone has changed a (tiny) bit after Amir provided some good context.

Edit: Oh, and I am sorry, I deliberately meant NOT to pollute this thread with that discussion, but guess I ended up doing it anyway. Bad form on my part. We should keep it to the other thread where it belongs.
 
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JSmith

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One of the posters who dared challenge it on ASR was banned by a moderator.
Erm no, the poster was thread banned for a few days for throwing personal attacks at people and being unable to debate the matter in a civil fashion... was nothing to do with "challenging it" from what I saw, which included the removed offensive post.



JSmith
 

Dannemand

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Erm no, the poster was thread banned for a few days for throwing personal attacks at people and being unable to debate the matter in a civil fashion... was nothing to do with "challenging it" from what I saw, which included the removed offensive post.

The posts I saw from that member were all completely factual and to the point, and contained more specifics about MQA workings than other posts in the thread. But they DID challenge the prevailing consensus in the thread -- and he received loads of hate, venom and ridicule from other members for doing so. If he made offensive posts in response to that they must have been deleted before I saw them. I only saw the mod comment about him being temp banned. The optics weren't pretty, if you ask me.

Anyways, that's for another thread. I appreciate the clarification.
 
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chefffe

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Just bought the X16 and indeed, the sound and build quality are absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately it has 2 heavy drawbacks which led me to return it. The BT reception is the worst I ever had with any device. I am sitting around 4m away from it and have massive outages. I have to lift my phone up and adjust the back of it to "hit" the BT antenna of Gustard. Maybe its broken because with my Loxije I was able to go to the end of the next room and didnt lose connection.
The second thing which is bad is the display. I cant see which input is chosen. I will recieve today the SMSL SU-9 and hope I will get happy with this one.
 

JSmith

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Gradius

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If you truly love music, then you should NEVER try to listen to mqa.

mqa is actually a scam. They lie saying they are capable of hq audio while they cannot even do better than 17-bit no matter what.

This remembers me the mp3 pro episode. No wonder it failed miserably.
 

dmac6419

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If you truly love music, then you should NEVER try to listen to mqa.

mqa is actually a scam. They lie saying they are capable of hq audio while they cannot even do better than 17-bit no matter what.

This remembers me the mp3 pro episode. No wonder it failed miserably.
MQA thread died yesterday RIP but to each his own.
 
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tparm

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Just bought the X16 and indeed, the sound and build quality are absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately it has 2 heavy drawbacks which led me to return it. The BT reception is the worst I ever had with any device. I am sitting around 4m away from it and have massive outages. I have to lift my phone up and adjust the back of it to "hit" the BT antenna of Gustard. Maybe its broken because with my Loxije I was able to go to the end of the next room and didnt lose connection.
The second thing which is bad is the display. I cant see which input is chosen. I will recieve today the SMSL SU-9 and hope I will get happy with this one.
Did you attach the two antenna?
 

tparm

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If you truly love music, then you should NEVER try to listen to mqa.

mqa is actually a scam. They lie saying they are capable of hq audio while they cannot even do better than 17-bit no matter what.

This remembers me the mp3 pro episode. No wonder it failed miserably.
You should go somewhere where people care about your opinion. That isn’t here.
 

sojer2005

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Hi, please don't bash me ;) , but I want to ask about this ESS hump. If the DAC is set to 0dB and connected directly to the integrated amplifier, then it won't be a problem at all? Is this ESS hump audible at all, if so, how is it manifested?

This X16 looks like a sweet deal... but I am concerned about this ESS hump a little.
 

devopsprodude

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Hi, please don't bash me ;) , but I want to ask about this ESS hump. If the DAC is set to 0dB and connected directly to the integrated amplifier, then it won't be a problem at all? Is this ESS hump audible at all, if so, how is it manifested?

This X16 looks like a sweet deal... but I am concerned about this ESS hump a little.
It is not audible at all. On the X16 it's far below what's audible. It's definitely not a reason to buy something else. This DAC is 100% transparent like any other well engineered DAC.
 
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