Gustard A18

[xmal]

Gustard A-18 owner reporting. Fantastic sound, excellent build quality, only niggle is the tiny fonts on the OLED display. Luckily, once set up, the display should be kept off anyways. Which filter are other people using and are you able to hear the difference at all?

FYI I've tried Topping D70, Dx7 Pro and D90 as well as Chord Qutest DACs. Currently listening to Oppo 105D, Pioneer N-50AE, Cambridge Audio CXN V2 and the A-18.

If you're in the market for a DAC - put Gustard A-18 on your shortlist.

How does the Gustard A-18 compare with the Cambridge Audio CXN, as this is my current setup. Do you notice a big upgrade in sound, or is it an incremental upgrade?

 

[sound_engineer]

I just received Gustard A-22 (second edition) unit, to upgrade from my previous AK4497 based Gustard A20H DAC. On my opinion, DAC with AK4499 produces more airy sound than AK4497 DAC. Overall sound out of A22 is very transparent, no coloration heard. Gustard A-22 build quality is unbelievable, assuming $1.1k price. Recommending it to try. Bought it from Apos CA.

 

[Harmonie]

@WHO23
Some line-up of equipment you have

 

[Harmonie]

What is A22 "second edition" ? I'm not aware of that edition.

 

[sound_engineer]

@Harmonie: With BT

 

[Harmonie]

@Harmonie: With BT

With BT is just an option, like USB and recently with MQA.
But that doesn't make it a "second edition".
I had the A22 (with BT & USB) . It's a good DAC, no doubt.

 

[sound_engineer]

I meant “first edition” was initial design, where is no BT option was possible to add. BT requires new backplate/interface/FW.

 

[nj75f]

To my understanding, A22 was a fail. It didn't sell well, didn't measure well(enough). A18 is a response to D90 yes, but they ditched the discrete stage, went all out for best measurements and lowest pricing. To exaggerate a bit, we might not see Gustard in the future if the market don't respond well to A18. This is probably my imagination. But it feels like that.

Thanks for the honest insight.
If that is the case I take the Gustard A18 instead the D90, paired with the Topping A90.
Btw. there is also a new Gustard amp coming which should rival the Monoprice thx and topping A90. What was it's name again?

Topping has surely more than enough funds
Also soundnews/Wolf reviewed the Gustard A18 and it is an awesome unit with a ton of functions.

Maybe tell your higher-ups to lower price of the D90 a bit?

 

[JohnYang1997]

Thanks for the honest insight.
If that is the case I take the Gustard A18 instead the D90, paired with the Topping A90.
Btw. there is also a new Gustard amp coming which should rival the Monoprice thx and topping A90. What was it's name again?

Topping has surely more than enough funds
Also soundnews/Wolf reviewed the Gustard A18 and it is an awesome unit with a ton of functions.

Maybe tell your higher-ups to lower price of the D90 a bit?

Discounts don't work well. Better way is to make better performing products for lower cost. That way you can lower the price.
At the moment D90 is still better and M400 is also better still. For the price of A18 it's really great.

 

[sq225917]

Gustard A18 arrived this morning, now on repeat for a few hours to clean the cobwebs out and drive any moisture out as it was airshipped.

Its surprisingly heavy.

And has surprisingly few opamps on the 'output stage'. In fact half as many as the advertising claims, I think they got mixed up with using dual op-amps.

 

[Ntrax]

Sold the D90, ordered mine, waiting for it. Hardest part is to wait. Damn

 

[sq225917]

Mine has been cooking for eight hours now and it sounds better, less congested. But it doesnt sound better than my rPi dac stack from iancanada.

The smsl400 was better in every way. This will be sold on, quickly.

 

[Ntrax]

Mine has been cooking for eight hours now and it sounds better, less congested. But it doesnt sound better than my rPi dac stack from iancanada.

The smsl400 was better in every way. This will be sold on, quickly.

That's unfortunate. Audio worst part is got the wrong gear pairing.

 

[sq225917]

One has to try these things. Don't get me wrong its a very good dac for the money, my rpi stack costs twice as much and takes up a lot of real estate.

 

[Ntrax]

One has to try these things. Don't get me wrong its a very good dac for the money, my rpi stack costs twice as much and takes up a lot of real estate.

I heard a much more expensive gear. But pairing does matter. A cheaper good pairing is better than an expensive bad pair. Reality. Not about money Everytime. Don't get me wrong too. Some expensive gears have great components and can implement very well. Some just very picky in pairing.

 

[sq225917]

Yeh I could spice it up with an edgy amp and speakers, but thats not what I'm about, I'm after as neutral a sound as I can get. Bruno putzeys preamp, nuerochome monos, studio monitors and treated music only room.

Having spent some time level matching accurately the differences are less apparent, but still there.

 

[gwarlek]

What does pairing mean? What's the principle behind it? What qualifies as a pair? Just "sounds right" or there is a way to arrive to that through measurements?

 

[sq225917]

So a day in. I would describe the differences thus, the Gustard is a few rows back in terms of perspective and its a little bit darker and fuller, maybe a tiny bit of bass bloom. Very small differences now.

 

[sq225917]

I need my eyes tested...

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

Maybe it is "crapping on a thread",...

I noticed on this thread, an abundance of "bloom", "tiresome", "air", "perspective", etc., in a few of the last posts ... Care to substantiate these? A bit of definition , of context, would go a long way toward comprehension... What are "Air", "bloom", etc.?

My experience is that past a certain level of measurable performance, all DAC sounds the same. What gives? What has suddenly been giving ? Care to explain?