Gustard X26Pro Review (Balanced High-end DAC)

[linger63]

I confirmed that the firmware was the problem as Coax input was fine. I upgraded to the "A" revision and the but is gone and there is significant improvement in two measurements:

View attachment 139002

View attachment 139003

View attachment 139004

The only odd thing is that maximum output dropped to 4.77 volts. SINAD in the dashboard remains the same as 119 dB but max SINAD is now 121 dB. @gustard, was this level supposed to happen? I am using the new ASIO driver that I had to install for the firmware. Before I was using Windows class driver.

Are you still planning on measuring the other 2 filter settings?

 

[amirm]

Are you still planning on measuring the other 2 filter settings?

??? I just did. What measurement did you want beside those?

 

[amirm]

The only odd thing is that maximum output dropped to 4.77 volts.

Gustard explained to me that this is the result of the different filter. Vivid would have produced the original 5.1 volt.

 

[MiRaGe_BG]

After the new correct firmware, can you already recommend this DAC, @amirm? If so, how do you find it overall among the other competitors?

 

[amirm]

After the new correct firmware, can you already recommend this DAC, @amirm? If so, how do you find it overall among the other competitors?

Yes, I will edit the review. It is much more money and runs hotter than competing products. The larger box does give a better "feeling" of owning something high-end. I replaced my large Mark Levinson dac with a Matrix DAC that is 1/5th its size and I miss that.

 

[Red@]

I think your ridicule is meaningless. If it is my mistake, I hope a friend will explain it to me. But your distorted understanding here must have ulterior motives

May I ask which sentence indicates that there are different hardware versions of X26PRO?
The X26PRO model has only one hardware version. Other hardware versions correspond to other models.

A B C We have explained before that different models of machines are in use, and some are customized products for other purposes, not the GUSTARD brand. This is not an upgrade or a downgrade. Just to distinguish the difference between the products used.

The firmware version number segment uses a separate string for editing, you can write anything you want. Of course, it can only be within 16 digits, which means that the maximum numeric value corresponds to the letter "F".

We are avoiding confusion.

These irrelevant discussions end here.

With all due respect. I got the same confusing myself, even though I am a proud owner of a x26 pro. So I don't think there is an alterior motive from him.
Also @gustard, this is a public forum, your are welcome to give your opinion as any other user but you don't get to make the rules of who has the right to express himself and when. Show some restraint please.
Ps: I love my x26 pro, and I hope @amirm corrects his review and changes the panther next to it

 

[F1308]

Honestly I'm not getting what you mean, there has been products with Bluetooth and wifi without visible antennas for about a decade. Look around, you'll see plenty of those products, it's so obvious I'm not sure where to start, It's all over.

How funny those offering top performance opt for external antennas.

 

[gvl]

??? I just did. What measurement did you want beside those?

Was there any DR improvement with the new f/w or over SPDIF?

 

[gustard]

With all due respect. I got the same confusing myself, even though I am a proud owner of a x26 pro. So I don't think there is an alterior motive from him.
Also @gustard, this is a public forum, your are welcome to give your opinion as any other user but you don't get to make the rules of who has the right to express himself and when. Show some restraint please.
Ps: I love my x26 pro, and I hope @amirm corrects his review and changes the panther next to it

Thanks for your kindness. Actually I was using Google translate in previews replys, maybe some of my expression are not that accurate after the translation.
I am happy to communicate with you guys, but I need more time to practice my English.

 

[hmt]

Really? Cables use a stream of ones and zeros or a record groove shape to construct an analogue signal? Where can I get that kind of magic sauce cable?

The point is that a simple DAC nowadays is just some stage in the procesing chain. I dont really get the obsession with this.

 

[PeteL]

With all due respect. I got the same confusing myself, even though I am a proud owner of a x26 pro. So I don't think there is an alterior motive from him.
Also @gustard, this is a public forum, your are welcome to give your opinion as any other user but you don't get to make the rules of who has the right to express himself and when. Show some restraint please.
Ps: I love my x26 pro, and I hope @amirm corrects his review and changes the panther next to it

I don't know, but the Gustard representative is here to be helpful, and I think he has been prompt to recognise issues and fix it. It was very obvious to me the difficulty with the english langage, but it's not about making the rules, everybody should show some restraint... I would think that "Shame on you", "You are telling the world you are amateurs", etc is not what I call showing restraint....

 

[MiRaGe_BG]

Thanks for your kindness. Actually I was using Google translate in previews replys, maybe some of my expression are not that accurate after the translation.
I am happy to communicate with you guys, but I need more time to practice my English.

I am using X26 Pro and as a musician I am greatly impressed by the sound it provides. Amazing work. So much clarity, detail, musicality and warmth at the same time is something which impressed me most. Congratulation on your amazing work! Keep going this strong, your products have a lot of potential!

I don't know, but the Gustard representative is here to be helpful, and I think he has been prompt to recognise issues and fix it. It was very obvious to me the difficulty with the english langage, but it's not about making the rules, everybody should show some restraint... I would think that "Shame on you", "You are telling the world you are amateurs", etc is not what I call showing restraint....

My thoughts exactly!

 

[Red@]

Gustard explained to me that this is the result of the different filter. Vivid would have produced the original 5.1 volt.

Hello @amirm , do you intend in the future on updating the review with post firmware update graphs ?
Also what is your interpretation of the IMD graph (notably regarding the small peaks at the end)
Thanks for your excellent reviews as always.

 

[TheTalbotHound]

I confirmed that the firmware was the problem as Coax input was fine. I upgraded to the "A" revision and the but is gone and there is significant improvement in two measurements:

View attachment 139002

View attachment 139003

View attachment 139004

The only odd thing is that maximum output dropped to 4.77 volts. SINAD in the dashboard remains the same as 119 dB but max SINAD is now 121 dB. @gustard, was this level supposed to happen? I am using the new ASIO driver that I had to install for the firmware. Before I was using Windows class driver.

was there a change to the IMD measurement with the new firmware?

 

[DHT 845]

Trying to spot differences in multitone on Topping D70s, it's almost identical do X26Pro.
How to interpret these small differences?

 

[PeteL]

Trying to spot differences in multitone on Topping D70s, it's almost identical do X26Pro.
How to interpret these small differences?

View attachment 139038

You can interpret them as negligible?

 

[Krillin]

Thank you Amirim for all your hard work.

Will up-sampling and related quantization noise, quantization errors, and interpolation in any way show up in IMD/THD measurements for any DAC? After all if a DAC is fed a low sample rate in NOS mode it is very audible yet is true to the original file. When NOS mode is off any DAC will up-sample significantly changing the sound for the better yet it's modifying the original source file to do so.

I'm a bit new at all this so if I said something a bit silly please be a bit lenient and help educate. Thanks

 

[taner]

if a DAC is fed a low sample rate in NOS mode it is very audible yet is true to the original file. When NOS mode is off any DAC will up-sample significantly changing the sound for the better yet it's modifying the original source file to do so.

There is not such a thing as "NOS" in digital domain. You can NOS, but this doesn't mean that you should avoid filtering. If you disable the resampler/filter in digital domain (feeding the dac chip with raw 44.1/48kHz content), you should implement an analog version of it on analog domain. Otherwise you will get most distorted and unnatural frequency response. Look at stairway step sine wave outputs and degraded high frequency response (bandwidth limitation) of "NOS" dacs.

 

[JohnYang1997]

When NOS mode is off any DAC will up-sample significantly changing the sound for the better yet it's modifying the original source file to do so.

False. Do you want to accomplish the raw data which is completely not resembling audio? If you do convert to actual analogue signal you inevitably will modify/alter in various ways. This is exactly why there's measurements. You use measurements to determine the quality of conversion. Not by "thinking".

 

[Veri]

Also, being pedantic but upsampling != oversampling.