Gustard X18 Review (Stereo DAC)

[FOB69]

Normal diminishing returns... And also this one has analog attenuation build in. According to @gustard

So in theory it shuld have the same good performance over a wider output range and not only closes to 0dBFS.
Would be niche to test this claim @amirm.

They said there is a 2db analog attenuator, They did not say that there was an analog volume control. That is not the same thing.

 

[Lambda]

volume pot won't change the signal quality

This is just plain wrong.

If you can't hear the differences it's academic whatever you want to call it.

If you think its ok to make wrong statements because you can't hear the difference audiosciencereview might be not the right forum for you.

They said there is a 2db analog attenuator, They did not say that there was an analog volume control. That is not the same thing.

it can be used to do the same job. but it Attenuation has only one Step (of 2db) its kind of pointless for this.

 

[Gradius]

Does someone has compare the X16 and X18 ?
There is a thread about it but talks of everything but the X16 X18 sound comparison.

It's minimal and some few cosmetic changes, like a ON/OFF on front of unit.

For real now, I want a X18, however, $750 for those very FEW changes is completly NUTS.

I will not pay more than $600 for it. Or probably will go with another (cheaper) solution instead.

You can get a X16+H16 for a cheaper price than X18 alone, right now.

 

[kiyu]

It's minimal and some few cosmetic changes, like a ON/OFF on front of unit.

For real now, I want a X18, however, $750 for those very FEW changes is completly NUTS.

I will not pay more than $600 for it. Or probably will go with another (cheaper) solution instead.

You can get a X16+H16 for a cheaper price than X18 alone, right now.

similar here
I am waiting for some discount, like 15,20% and I might get it, also thinking of the D1se. or DO200+Ho200.

I thought that was going to be some important discount for new year, but nothing..

 

[Snoopy]

similar here
I am waiting for some discount, like 15,20% and I might get it, also thinking of the D1se. or DO200+Ho200.

I thought that was going to be some important discount for new year, but nothing..

I went with the SMSL D300.
(No particular reason, it measured well and was available directly from Amazon and arrived after 2 days).

I will wait with a more expensive DAC till SMSL and Gustard etc start to add EQ and DSP Features like the ADI RME DAC

 

[Gradius]

Hmm... SMSL D300 it's ok for $400:

SMSL D300 Review (Balanced DAC)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the new SMSL D300 stereo USB DAC. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $399.99. I am pleased with the refinements of LCD and controls: The LCD no longer has that fuzzy look of prior SMSL products. And the flush mounted buttons look more...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[sq225917]

OK Mr audio police. Why don't you do a double blind test to prove where you can hear the difference, just run it full tilt into a switched attenuator and let us know at what point you can spot which is the dac volume and which is the switched pot.

 

[andreadilo]

Received yesterday from Amazon. First impressions are very positive, but to my ears it seems to be too much on the bright side

 

[srkbear]

No, a CS8416 is not used in the X18 because there is no 28-pin chip on the board.
Since the corresponding chip in the X18 has 32 pins, I assume that it is a CS8422 again.

Then hopefully it won’t have the issues with audio dropouts with S/PDIF hookups like the Topping D90se does?

 

[dsnyder0cnn]

my ears it seems to be too much on the bright side

Compared to what? The frequency response of the X16 is ruler-flat. I assume the X18 is the same, but I've not had a sample to measure.

 

[Roland68]

Then hopefully it won’t have the issues with audio dropouts with S/PDIF hookups like the Topping D90se does?

I'm not convinced this is just a problem with the D90SE. As you write yourself, it works perfectly for you with the HDMI audio extractor and SPDIF.
That also points to a problem with the source devices.

I also wrote something about it in the D90SE thread.

 

[Sunken]

Hi everyone, new guy here, just joined the audiophile world not long ago and still got much to learn.

I got my Gustard x18 some days ago pairing with a burson soloist 3xp for my PC and they sound great.
I then found out that the max bit depth it can go on my PC is 24bit 384k Hz, but the Dac says 34bit 768k Hz.

Did I do something wrong in the settings or is this normal and I should not worry about.
Sorry I am a total noob about audios.

 

[kiyu]

Hi everyone, new guy here, just joined the audiophile world not long ago and still got much to learn.

I got my Gustard x18 some days ago pairing with a burson soloist 3xp for my PC and they sound great.
I then found out that the max bit depth it can go on my PC is 24bit 384k Hz, but the Dac says 34bit 768k Hz.View attachment 185535
Did I do something wrong in the settings or is this normal and I should not worry about.
Sorry I am a total noob about audios.

Have you installed the lasted driver?
If my memory is correct my previous Topping DX7 pro can reach up to 32-bit 384k Hz in windows, 768k is not supported in windows so that's why it won't appear so don't worry about that, but 32 bits I guess it should appear.
if you want to play music properly I will recommend you to use foobar and install ASIO and the components in foobar to make that work, there is a pdf in gustard website on how to configure foobar.
if you can find it let me know I will send you the link.
Hope that helps

 

[Veri]

Hi everyone, new guy here, just joined the audiophile world not long ago and still got much to learn.

I got my Gustard x18 some days ago pairing with a burson soloist 3xp for my PC and they sound great.
I then found out that the max bit depth it can go on my PC is 24bit 384k Hz, but the Dac says 34bit 768k Hz.

Windows only supports up to 384k in settings. Other OS like Mac OS X will show up to 1536k so it's just a Windows thing. There's no *real* point selecting this rate though, it just makes everything resample to this high rate.. while the DAC already does an oversampling stage which does a similar thing. I blame the marketing on these devices that make you think super high input rates is something you need..

I personally wouldn't bother and just use 44/48k, whichever makes most sense for what you do (most audio is 44k, most movies/games are 48k).
As said you could also use a player with an exclusive mode, which dynamically changes the DAC sample rate based on the source file that is playing. Then you don't force any unnecessary resampling.

 

[Cisco150]

If he uses Tidal or the Roon or even Audiarvana app for windows he can set it to dedicated mode for volume in the app and it will bypass windows bit mode and do it native of that song and what the app can do. Haves to be using USB @Sunken

 

[Sunken]

Have you installed the lasted driver?
If my memory is correct my previous Topping DX7 pro can reach up to 32-bit 384k Hz in windows, 768k is not supported in windows so that's why it won't appear so don't worry about that, but 32 bits I guess it should appear.
if you want to play music properly I will recommend you to use foobar and install ASIO and the components in foobar to make that work, there is a pdf in gustard website on how to configure foobar.
if you can find it let me know I will send you the link.
Hope that helps

Hi, thank you for the reply and thank you for explaining. Idk if it is the latest driver as shown below.

I will definitely give Foobar a go and thank you once again.

 

[Sunken]

Windows only supports up to 384k in settings. Other OS like Mac OS X will show up to 1536k so it's just a Windows thing. There's no *real* point selecting this rate though, it just makes everything resample to this high rate.. while the DAC already does an oversampling stage which does a similar thing. I blame the marketing on these devices that make you think super high input rates is something you need..

I personally wouldn't bother and just use 44/48k, whichever makes most sense for what you do (most audio is 44k, most movies/games are 48k).
As said you could also use a player with an exclusive mode, which dynamically changes the DAC sample rate based on the source file that is playing. Then you don't force any unnecessary resampling.

Hey mate, thank you for the information I need, it helps me tremendously of understanding how things work through Windows and other OS.
Yeah I kinda fell into that marketing trap as you described and lesson learned.
And by exclusive mode, do you mean something like this, the Wasapi ( Exclusive Mode).

 

[Sunken]

If he uses Tidal or the Roon or even Audiarvana app for windows he can set it to dedicated mode for volume in the app and it will bypass windows bit mode and do it native of that song and what the app can do. Haves to be using USB @Sunken

I'm currently using Amazon music the trial version, once the time is up I will start trying Qobuz along with Audirvana?

 

[Veri]

Hey mate, thank you for the information I need, it helps me tremendously of understanding how things work through Windows and other OS.
Yeah I kinda fell into that marketing trap as you described and lesson learned.
And by exclusive mode, do you mean something like this, the Wasapi ( Exclusive Mode).
View attachment 185629

Yep! WASAPI or ASIO, they achieve the same and Roon is awesome of course.

 

[exwhyzed]

Now that X18 users have had their unit for a while, can you all post some mid-term findings, now that the new-purchase-thrill has worn off?

Is this still a great DAC? Have you found any shortcomings that were not apparent at first? Any noticeable difference between RCA and XLR outputs? Are both outputs too "hot" [outputting too high a voltage] for the receiving electronics [preamplifier, power amplifier]?

How does it compare to other DACs you may have acquired since then?

So far i found only 1 review on amazon.ca that praises the unit highly, but i want to hear more about it before i take the leap myself...looking forward to the info!