Sorry, I don't understand. Are you saying that a DAC should not have a volume control?less is more!
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Gustard X16 Balanced MQA DAC Review
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
hifigo support does not seem to want to reduce the price for those who were waiting (ignored that part of my question) but told me to start shipping "tomorrow".
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Or, alternatively, don't bother posting something if you're not willing to engage in debate and discussion!
kopczas
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When I`ve ordered on 15th November it already was 50$ off.
Wasn't that because of a holiday event?
kopczas
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I think this discount was extended for next 2 weeks. I remember that 15th Nov should be last day if discount , so I thought is was last minute to order.
The day the this review was published X16 had already been offered on hifigo with 50$ off.
Oh I see we do......
Just a note to UK customers, I clicked on 'Manage Delivery' in the text from DHL later on today, just to see if their was a tracking feed. If I had not done this I wouldn't have seen the import charge that had to be paid before they will deliver so I would of been waiting god knows how long. I wanted to do it on the PC so I filled in the tracking details and all that said was it was going to be delivered Monday. Only the link on my text message gave me access to the 'Awaiting Payment' page. £18.59 in case anyone was wondering, still a bargain after I paid just over £320 minus any refunds for waiting.
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Yeah! Please post some initial impressions quickly and then more detail listening experience later. Can't wait.
I don't make two or three post to clutter up the thread every single time,you must have me confused,you stay in your lane and I'll stay in mine okay,thank you and have a nice day.
Well first impressions are wow this thing is built like a tank. it feels heavy and solid. the screen is absolutely tiny but very clear. Slightly annoying that there isn't a power button on the front. The control wheel is fast and easy to use but a little cheap feeling. I have mine paired with the Topping A90 amp. I'm learning that there is such a thing as too much detail lol. I had a set of headphones (monolith m1070) that I've been enjoying listening to for a while now. With this setup I almost cannot listen to them anymore. They have become very harsh and sibilant in the treble region. The reviews about the headphones always complained about this, but I never heard it. I thought I just wasn't treble sensitive, but the X16 has shown me how wrong I was lol. With my cheaper amp DAC combo, there wasn't much of a tonal shift between each songs. They all sounded boomy and not much treble presence. With the X16 there is a wide tonal range now. Songs that used to have a boomy bass now have a quite and refined thumping bass. The treble extensions is beyond what I've expected. I'm not a fan of overly peaky treble so I have to EQ it out now. I'm waiting on my focal clears to come in to really test this out though. I'm not a audio reviewer and I don't think I have golden ears. If someone points out a minor detail in a song I can often find it myself. While I am just listening regularly I wouldn't catch those minor details by myself though. I often will find something I like or dislike about a audio setup, but simply cannot put into words. if you have any question about the X16 let me know and I will try to answer them (I've had mine for a while now
).nerekan
Member
this is alarming ...
I hope I will get X16 in 2 weeks.
Better to evaluate it yourself on your system
About X16, I didn't have any illusions, I ordered it because the X26 will appear only in March.
I think the X16 this is just another step for me, although who knows ...
Getting the same message shipping to germany. Website said enter an 11 digit import code for the DAC. Then some dude from Leipzig DHL left a message on my voicemail
Did it delay your package getting shipped out from Schenzhen or was it later in the shipment process?I would be interested in the answers to these questions myself. I am anticipating my X16 arriving within a week so that should be interesting.
This may just be my headphones and in my particular situation. I also did not mean it in a negative way at all. I think my cheaper (they shall remain nameless) dac/amp combo was artificially boosting the bass. Songs were dominated by a boomy muddy bass, and the mids all but disappeared. With the X16 everything was more balanced. It seemed to reproduce the music how it was meant to be. If it was meant to be a bass heavy track there was PLENTY of bass, but the mids never disappeared like with my old dac/amp combo. I did listen to it using my Chi-fi Audiosense T800, which tamed the trebles a lot better than the Monolith M1070 did. Which is my reason for thinking it's the headphones and not the X16 causing the harsh treble. I am very very happy with my purchase, and I think this setup will replace my aging Grace M903 when I get back to my house in another month or so. I can't wait to compare the 2 because the M903 was $2500 new, but much older now. I would like to see how much technology has moved on in the many years since the M903 first launched.
nerekan
Member
I am sincerely happy for you and thanks for the clarification.
Yeah I have been messing around with the buffer settings and man things can go bad quickly if you get it wrong. There was a hard random stop start sound when I was streaming from Amazon music HD. Then I changed it again and I started getting a random popping sound with anything I played. I have it set at 2048 samples with safe mode on and no issues so far. [Note] I am using a 10 year old laptop because that's where my music library is. This may be a cause for the random anomalies. I do have a brand new laptop, but have been too lazy to transfer the files. I'm also a bit hesitant to move the library to the new laptop because some of these songs were ummmm tactically acquired and may pose a potential virus risk to my new laptop lol.
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