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Gustard X16 Owners feedback...

I have the Gustard X16 and love it. That said, I suspect that it would not be easy to hear a difference between the X16 and D50s in a level-matched blind test. :) But I get where you're coming from wrt build quality, heft, etc. My only gripe with the X16 is the tiny display, but that probably won't be an issue for your setup.

If you don't mind dealing with TRS to XLR cables, I'd also look at the Topping E50 (same DAC chip as the X16…I have this one too) and D10 Balanced. I've really been impressed with the E50 so far. Only niggle is that it takes a couple of tries to get it going after a cold boot when streaming to it via a Raspberry Pi using Roon.

Have you an opinion on sound quality (Topping E50 vs. Gustard X16) ???
 
Have you an opinion on sound quality (Topping E50 vs. Gustard X16) ???
I've not actually put them into the same system to compare directly. I need to take some of my own measurements, but I suspect that the time-domain performance of the X16 is slightly better/different. There's some controversy around if this has any meaningful impact to sound quality, but if there's a difference in sound, that's where it might show up as frequency response and other performance metrics are virtually identical.

Obviously the display on the E50 is miles better than the X16, but the packaging and heft of the X16 make it feel like a more serious audio component. I think they are both great, but the X16 will stay in my main 2-channel system while the E50 will be part of a headphones / desktop rig. If I was buying again, I'd probably still go for the X16, X18, or Topping D90SE for my main system, paired with my existing Topping Pre90/Ext90 analog preamp, even if the E50 does sound, essentially, the same.
 
Have you an opinion on sound quality (Topping E50 vs. Gustard X16) ???
Personally, for what its worth on here i found the x16 toi shrill/bright much preferred the topping e30 and smsl m400. Topping d50 didn't do any thing for me either but never tried the e50. Best way forward is to buy used listen or measure if you so desire and then decide whether to keep/sell on
 
Personally, for what its worth on here i found the x16 toi shrill/bright much preferred the topping e30 and smsl m400. Topping d50 didn't do any thing for me either but never tried the e50. Best way forward is to buy used listen or measure if you so desire and then decide whether to keep/sell on
Since the frequency response is ruler-flat for all three, I'm not sure where the "shrill/bright" bit is coming from. I do not recommend buying DACs used. Technology changes too fast. Would be like buying a used smartphone.
 
Personally, for what its worth on here i found the x16 toi shrill/bright much preferred the topping e30 and smsl m400. Topping d50 didn't do any thing for me either but never tried the e50. Best way forward is to buy used listen or measure if you so desire and then decide whether to keep/sell on
Have you tried fiddling with the X16 PCM filter?
 
After reading this thread I decided to find a X16 and give it a go. I landed one a few weeks ago and have been fiddling with it since. In most settings my tinnitus kicks in when listening to this DAC. My best setting was with NOS ON and Roon upsampling everything to a minimum of 352/384 with a 500ms output buffer. The volume was set at -3db for most of my testing using balanced outputs. I even bought the programming device and upgraded the firmware to the latest level.

I later realized that the volume control at -3db may be adding some distortion. Set at 0db suddenly the shrillness stopped and my tinnitus in now calming down. I'll check again tomorrow, but I expect my ears to return to normal in a day or two.

Operating this way, there is no doubt this is an exceptional DAC. It throws a wide soundstage, there is plenty of separation and great top to bottom extension combined with a great deal of clarity and precision in the image.

I have had many DACs here over the years, and setup this way, the X16 is one of the best.
 
After reading this thread I decided to find a X16 and give it a go. I landed one a few weeks ago and have been fiddling with it since. In most settings my tinnitus kicks in when listening to this DAC. My best setting was with NOS ON and Roon upsampling everything to a minimum of 352/384 with a 500ms output buffer. The volume was set at -3db for most of my testing using balanced outputs. I even bought the programming device and upgraded the firmware to the latest level.

I later realized that the volume control at -3db may be adding some distortion. Set at 0db suddenly the shrillness stopped and my tinnitus in now calming down. I'll check again tomorrow, but I expect my ears to return to normal in a day or two.

Operating this way, there is no doubt this is an exceptional DAC. It throws a wide soundstage, there is plenty of separation and great top to bottom extension combined with a great deal of clarity and precision in the image.

I have had many DACs here over the years, and setup this way, the X16 is one of the best.
I'm glad to hear that the X16 is working out for you…I've never intentionally operated mine using the internal volume control (alway set to 0 dB), but I'd be surprised to hear that this adds distortion. My understanding is that attenuation is implemented within the ES9068AS chipset, so there should not be much that can go wrong.

Unrelated to sound quality, my experience with tinnitus is that it's more associated with caffeine and alcohol consumption, although excessive teeth clenching (especially while sleeping) can aggravate it as well. Exposure to loud sounds will cause short-term tinnitus for most people, but assuming your average playback levels are below 90 dB, you should be fine there. I can't imagine any quality of the Gustard X16, on its own, that would cause or aggravate tinnitus symptoms. Good luck!
 
I'm glad to hear that the X16 is working out for you…I've never intentionally operated mine using the internal volume control (alway set to 0 dB), but I'd be surprised to hear that this adds distortion. My understanding is that attenuation is implemented within the ES9068AS chipset, so there should not be much that can go wrong.

Unrelated to sound quality, my experience with tinnitus is that it's more associated with caffeine and alcohol consumption, although excessive teeth clenching (especially while sleeping) can aggravate it as well. Exposure to loud sounds will cause short-term tinnitus for most people, but assuming your average playback levels are below 90 dB, you should be fine there. I can't imagine any quality of the Gustard X16, on its own, that would cause or aggravate tinnitus symptoms. Good luck
My noise induced tinnitus follows that patterns described below:

"More commonly, the onset of noise-induced tinnitus is gradual and intermittent in its early stages. Patients report hearing a mild form of tinnitus for a short period of time following exposure to loud sounds. Once the patient is removed from the noise source, the tinnitus soon diminishes and is inaudible until the next exposure. This intermittent pattern often continues for months or years with the periods of tinnitus becoming longer and longer."
 
My noise induced tinnitus follows that patterns described below:

"More commonly, the onset of noise-induced tinnitus is gradual and intermittent in its early stages. Patients report hearing a mild form of tinnitus for a short period of time following exposure to loud sounds. Once the patient is removed from the noise source, the tinnitus soon diminishes and is inaudible until the next exposure. This intermittent pattern often continues for months or years with the periods of tinnitus becoming longer and longer."
Sure, but how can these symptoms be attributed most settings on the Gustard X16 DAC?
 
Has anyone else here experienced tinnitus symptoms that were caused by listening to the Gustard X16 or any other particular source?

Playback levels are not (entirely) a function of the source…rather downstream amplification and speakers or headphones. If you chose to listen at extremely high levels, that's not the fault of the DAC. That's on you.
 
Has anyone else here experienced tinnitus symptoms that were caused by listening to the Gustard X16 or any other particular source?
No!
Playback levels are not (entirely) a function of the source…rather downstream amplification and speakers or headphones. If you chose to listen at extremely high levels, that's not the fault of the DAC. That's on you.
Yes and agree! The DAC is not modulating tinnitus.
 
You can also get ringing in the ears as a result of migraines without the headache. Sounds odd, but that is a real thing and I experience it.
 
Just received my X16 today and since it has a built-in volume control I wonder if there is any benefit turning it down from 0 to say -10db and up-regulating the amplifier to compensate. Or is the pre-amp section in the X16 purely digital therefore best to be kept at 0?
 
Just received my X16 today and since it has a built-in volume control I wonder if there is any benefit turning it down from 0 to say -10db and up-regulating the amplifier to compensate. Or is the pre-amp section in the X16 purely digital therefore best to be kept at 0?
My understanding is that attenuation happens digitally inside the ESS DAC chip. My solution to avoid clipping intersample peaks that are above 0 dBTP is to add some attenuation in my media player (Roon's Headroom Management and/or Volume Leveling features).
 
I can't comment further on the situation, which is obviously under evaluation by Gustard.

As we go to quality, I have absolutely no complaints about how it's built. I concentrate more on the experience with it. Having tested it in various monitor systems, involving Avalon Mixing Monitor, Kharma CRM3.2 and a list of typical BBC loudspeakers, all amplified by Spectral, the X16 was able to recreate very transparent and very wide images. Detail was retrieved clearly even in the most intricate orchestral passages. I liked it very much. Consider that the listening was carried side to side with a Bricasti M3 and a Bricasti M1SE as reference. All the good delivered with loudspeakers was entirely confirmed with the headphones (HiFiman, Audeze, Focal Sennheiser involved).
Hi,

What are is your thoughts about the Bricasti M1SE and M3 pared with Spectral electronics? I am thinking about the M21 DAC with Spectral electronics.
 
Hi,

What are is your thoughts about the Bricasti M1SE and M3 pared with Spectral electronics? I am thinking about the M21 DAC with Spectral electronics.
It's a ok pairing, with and without the preamplifier in the middle. I couldn't find any incompatibility. I either use the M3 directly connected to a DMA100S, using its volume control, or connected as a pure DAC to the DMC30SS driving the DMA200S2. M21 is a good choice if you want to listen alternatively to the R2R DAC it has onboard. My personal preference is for the M3. It's a good idea to buy a recent one with the Mdx processing board. (There is a significantly better jitter rejection with the Mdx). I particularly like the Native DSD decoding, available specifically with the M3.

Here You can find some spectral estimates about how M3, M3 Mdx, M1SE perform with multitone signals:

 
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It's a ok pairing, with and without the preamplifier in the middle. I couldn't find any incompatibility. I either use the M3 directly connected to a DMA100S, using its volume control, or connected as a pure DAC to the DMC30SS driving the DMA200S2. M21 is a good choice if you want to listen alternatively to the R2R DAC it has onboard. My personal preference is for the M3. It's a good idea to buy a recent one with the Mdx processing board. (There is a significantly better jitter rejection with the Mdx). I particularly like the Native DSD decoding, available specifically with the M3.

Here You can find some spectral estimates about how M3, M3 Mdx, M1SE perform with multitone signals:

tHANS
 
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