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Gustard X16 Balanced MQA DAC Review

Pdxwayne

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Hello gentlemen, what combination to use for the highest quality ?

Step1
Bluesound Node 2i --optical--> Gustard x16
Bluesound Node 2i --coax--> Gustard x16
Bluesound Node 2i --analogRCA--> Gustard x16

Step2 which connection will be better RCA or XLR:
Gustard x16 --RCA-->AUDIOPHONICS MPA-S250NC RCA Class D Stereo Amplifier Ncore 2x250W
Gustard x16 --XLR-->AUDIOPHONICS MPA-S250NC XLR Class D Stereo Amplifier Ncore 2x250W

Gustard has no wake up option ( Trigger in ) Is it possible to somehow set it to run together with Bluesound?
Gustard won't take analog in.

Unofficially, Gustard said a while back Coax is better than optical.

Either Coax or optical will do the rest of mqa unfolding after Node2i initial unfold. Node2i must be in fix volume mode and mqa pass through must be disabled for that to happen.

If possible, use XLR out from Gustard.
 

Pankar0

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Night listening ...first day for my X16....
I m very impressed...it s fantastic.!!
20210313_015546.jpg
 

ninetylol

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Okay, I noticed one stupid thing with the X16.

When you have Auto Display Off and use it with optical, once you shutdown your PC it displays "UNLOCK" instead of sample rate and the display wont turn off.

@gustard any fix?
 

dmac6419

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Okay, I noticed one stupid thing with the X16.

When you have Auto Display Off and use it with optical, once you shutdown your PC it displays "UNLOCK" instead of sample rate and the display wont turn off.

@gustard any fix?
you have to turn it off from the back,it waiting for a source or leave it on.
 

cecelo01

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I have the M500 and SU9 in my settings. I was thinking of exchanging my M500 for X16. However, the 58-year-old caution says to wait a little longer. After 107 pages, half of which was related to the MQA certification approach and the other half to small obstacles. You better wait! In fact, it appears to be well machined, excellent decoder, beautiful design. It is still too little! I will wait for your maturation time, feedback from users on the degree of satisfaction and the rate of return. My M500 with 750 hs firm and strong. SU9 with 200 hours of burning with excellent results. Both with excellent quality and performance, excellent machining and permissiveness with software. At this level of dacs, we know that audibly in a blind test it is very difficult to decipher who is who.

m500_x11.jpg
 

ninetylol

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By the way it seems i fixed my USB stuttering issue. Problem was indeed my PC. If someone else have the same problem (Wdf01000.sys ISR count very high in Latencymon was a sign for this), I did the following:
1. Downgraded bios to one version before last.
2. Intel xHCI Mode turned from "Smart" to "Disabled" inside bios.

Working great so far *fingers crossed*
 
Last edited:

Frio

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By the way it seems i fixed my USB stuttering issue. Problem was indeed my PC. If someone else have the same problem (Wdf01000.sys ISR count very high in Latencymon was a sign for this), I did the following:
1. Downgraded bios to one version before last
2. EHCI Legacy support turned from "Smart" to "Off" inside bios

Working great so far *fingers crossed*
Yep I had the same issue with 'unlocked' or only left channel mono. First uninstalling all other audio drivers helped but a mainboard bios brought it up again, since amd is fixing their usb issues atm. I'll try that ehci fix too and report here. Thx
 

ninetylol

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Yep I had the same issue with 'unlocked' or only left channel mono. First uninstalling all other audio drivers helped but a mainboard bios brought it up again, since amd is fixing their usb issues atm. I'll try that ehci fix too and report here. Thx
Im speaking of very short audio dropouts over USB, but who knows maybe it will fix your issue too :p
 

Frio

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Im speaking of very short audio dropouts over USB, but who knows maybe it will fix your issue too :p
Yeah the bad news is that those usb issues have many different outcomes from distortions, dropout till complete failure. Some plattforms geht an Update every month but they just found the cause, so maybe I have a fix in a month.
 

ninetylol

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Yeah the bad news is that those usb issues have many different outcomes from distortions, dropout till complete failure. Some plattforms geht an Update every month but they just found the cause, so maybe I have a fix in a month.
yeh Ive read about the X570 usb problems. good thing they acknowledged it. My board is a old X99 though so i posted the info just if anyone else may have the same problem.
 

walt99

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Maybe I missed this in the 107 pages somewhere, when running RCA out of the X16 to RCA in on the 8500/A110 where should you set the X16 volume?
I don't want to overload the analog input of the Denon.
From the A110 manual:
Analog
Input sensitivity: 200 mV
 
Last edited:

Frio

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What is the point?How do you know it is recorded properly or not altered by yt algorithms? How do you listen isolated to a dac in a chain?
 

chansters

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Hello gentlemen, what combination to use for the highest quality ?

Step1
Bluesound Node 2i --optical--> Gustard x16
Bluesound Node 2i --coax--> Gustard x16
Bluesound Node 2i --analogRCA--> Gustard x16

Step2 which connection will be better RCA or XLR:
Gustard x16 --RCA-->AUDIOPHONICS MPA-S250NC RCA Class D Stereo Amplifier Ncore 2x250W
Gustard x16 --XLR-->AUDIOPHONICS MPA-S250NC XLR Class D Stereo Amplifier Ncore 2x250W

Gustard has no wake up option ( Trigger in ) Is it possible to somehow set it to run together with Bluesound?

tried connecting node2i to x16 via both coax and optical. Optical to me was far better.
 

Oukkidoukki

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why dont you just order one and try it for yourself?^^
We had one here but box had some moisture damage ....even mildew smell....which was weird.......we didnt try it, send it back...........sooooo we would at least like to listen it thru youtube:D:D:facepalm::)....
............they wierdly didnt want to send another one, just give money back.......so we not sure what to do now
 
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