Gustard X16 Balanced MQA DAC Review

[Matias]

Interesting how RCA has lower harmonic distortion elements than XLR, yet its SINAD is lower.
Also interesting how USB input has a tiny little more jitter side bands than coax input.
Great performance and price! Congrats, Gustard.

 

[Martin]

But where is the H16?

Martin

 

[tonapo]

I have been looking for an additional DAC. I have an D90 already and like it. I need two DAC's, one for my desk, one for my main stereo set-up, so there is a space. I had been weighing up the pro's and con's of the D90 vs the RME ADI-2 DAC FS but now it looks like I need to add the Gustard X16 into the mix!

 

[Helicopter]

Amir, thanks for the review. Another impressive product to market.

M400 still has better performance at 5.3V which is at AP's best performance voltage level. You can parallel left and right just to see the future. But at 4V, the noise performance is really limited by AP.
I would say when everyone reaches this level of performance we finally can see the other things that differentiate the product like DSP, ADC, integration with power amp etc.

I couldn't agree more John. I really don't care if SINAD is 5dB one way or the other at 2 or 5.3V or whatever at this level of performance in a unit with nothing broken. What I anticipate most is DSP. PEQ first, and Dirac, or something similar, but cheaper, or free, later on. That open source one is exciting. ADC with excellent phono ability or mic pre ability would be nice too, and could be added for a lot less than we are spending on separates right now.

 

[pimy]

But where is the H16?

Martin

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...stard-h16-balanced-headphone-amplifier.17399/

 

[EchoChamber]

Thank you for the great review @amirm !! Looks like an amazing DAC... I might “have to” get one and add to my collection of high SINAD DACs... ;-)

 

[Morla]

Cheaper than the x18 Looks same like the a18 mk2 with toslink. Makes me thinking of a second dac for the homeoffice..

 

[jendra]

Would this be suitable to connect directly to a power amp with no volume control? i.e. would the volume control on the DAC be sufficient?

 

[Morla]

Would this be suitable to connect directly to a power amp with no volume control? i.e. would the volume control on the DAC be sufficient?

Either control volume in the dac or control it at a source before the dac and set dac to 0dB. I think that would both be possible

 

[Morla]

What changes in substance considering that I am not interested in mqa? And among other things, mqa is also present in the a18 .....

I doubt you would notice any difference, really.

 

[jbrown]

Thanks for the review. Do you ever test stereo separation?

 

[WolfX-700]

Thanks for the review. Do you ever test stereo separation?

 

[Dmitri]

They just used the tried and true method for most protocols and codecs (except for the very few that actually do something dramatically different):
1) Give it away to a select few.
2) Advertise the crap out of it and pay for favorable reviews.
3) Price it as high as step 2 indicates you can.... and profit!

I hear you can boil live frogs the same way... although I still don't understand why that's desirable as I'm neither French, Chinese, nor from the southern US.[/QUOTE

Just the legs man...just the legs.

As a more traditional era audio nut, I haven’t been all that interested in DAC’s...mostly just speakers and amps....but the increasing performance levels with the corresponding reduction in pricing for quality DAC’s is impressive to watch. Looks like my interests will be expanding, and hence my “relearning audio curve” will become even shallower as a result...
So....guess I’d better start by looking up MQA. ; )

 

[Fabrizio]

Does someone know where I can buy Gustard products in Europe? They really have to work on the marketing/sales side, the website is very bad (when it works) and distribution is not so clear ...

 

[tonapo]

Does someone know where I can buy Gustard products in Europe? They really have to work on the marketing/sales side, the website is very bad (when it works) and distribution is not so clear ...

Where were you looking out of interest? I am in the UK, and I was looking at shenzhenaudio.com.

I also had a quick look at the manual, in NOS mode, I assume I can pass DSD 256-512 from HQ Player?

 

[Fabrizio]

I would prefer to buy from a European distributor.

 

[pimy]

Does someone know where I can buy Gustard products in Europe?

Audiophonics in France

 

[Puddingbuks]

Audiophonics in France

X16 is not on their website yet.

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/search?search_query=gustard

 

[Fabrizio]

X16 is not on their website yet.

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/search?search_query=gustard

that's much better, thanks!

 

[kopczas]

X16 is not on their website yet.

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/search?search_query=gustard

It is kind of fresh model, there are also no other reviews than Amir`s.