Gustard X26Pro Review (Balanced High-end DAC)

[Veri]

Nevertheless, Hifigo told me that once the item is received by them, they will assess whether the item has been opened and will charge up to a 20% restocking fee at their discretion—and they will also assess all VAT fees and other duties and bill me for those once it is received.

Restocking fees are not uncommon

Just to compare. I ordered something at "Hifi-express" EU warehouse but it was shipped from China using "Yanwen" logistics so that was some false advertising or at the very least, non-existent stock management. They, too, have a restocking fee in case the item is not returned in brand-new unopened condition, they refund "up to" 65% of the cost excluding your return shipping (with one exception, if the item is faulty/non-working)..

I recommend buying from local/close by retailers who buy and import the products themselves and usually give a (longer) warranty of their own. Either that or ordering from amazon with fulfillment by amazon warehouse. The other options... not so attractive indeed.

 

[Highfive99]

For another Aoshida HiFi-US via Amazon shipping data point, I ordered a Gustard U18 on 11/29 but not stocked in a US warehouse yet. Shipping from China. FedEx tracking shows delivery scheduled for Tuesday. 2 weeks. Not bad. Given my 2 experiences with Aoshida HiFi-US and their sale follow up and very responsive customer support, I would not deal with any other Chinese reseller. Pretty damn good rating on sellerratings.com too https://www.sellerratings.com/amazon/usa/aoshida-hifi-us

I did confirm the products have a 2 yr warranty. If defective and factory repair is needed, shipping back to China would be on my dime. Gustard would pay the return freight back to me. Aoshida HiFi-US indicated rarely, if ever, do Gustard products require factory repair.

 

[Highfive99]

Got the U18 today. It is replacing a U16 and feeding a X-26 Pro. Out of the box it was a noticeable upgrade. Highly recommended for any X-26 Pro owner. Great synergy between the 2 Gustard products. Aoshida shipped it FedEx International Priority for free. I cannot speak highly enough of Aoshida and their very responsive to emails customer service.

 

[Igor Gaich]

Good day to all !
I want to share one drawback of the DAC that I discovered.
Every time after playing any DSD512 file (22.5 MHz), a specific noise appears in one of the channels .... To remove it, just turn the DAC off and on. if such files are not in the list, then the noise will not appear at all.
What I did I put back the F1A firmware and the problem disappeared (I had previously installed F20Beta)

 

[Igor Gaich]

Got the U18 today. It is replacing a U16 and feeding a X-26 Pro. Out of the box it was a noticeable upgrade. Highly recommended for any X-26 Pro owner. Great synergy between the 2 Gustard products. Aoshida shipped it FedEx International Priority for free. I cannot speak highly enough of Aoshida and their very responsive to emails customer service.

Why use the U18 node to the X26pro converter? X26pro contains the same XMOS216 and K2.
Or did I not understand something?

 

[Igor Gaich]

I also noticed that with the F1A firmware the sound is better, as it seemed to me more expressive mids, I noticed this to a greater extent when I listened to the DAC on headphones together with a homemade DIY headphone amplifier, which has approximately the same distortion level Gustard x26 pro (an amplifier with a very deep negative feedback)

 

[Giangi71]

Ho anche notato che con il firmware F1A il suono è migliore, in quanto mi sembravano medi più espressivi, l'ho notato in misura maggiore quando ho ascoltato il DAC in cuffia insieme a un amplificatore per cuffie fai-da-te fatto in casa, che ha all'incirca lo stesso livello di distorsione Gustard x26 pro (un amplificatore con un feedback negativo molto profondo)

Not for me and, however, with F1A I don't have full mqa decoding. Big improvement in sound with F20 Beta for me

 

[Highfive99]

Why use the U18 node to the X26pro converter? X26pro contains the same XMOS216 and K2.
Or did I not understand something?

It gives the X26pro a cleaner signal to convert. It converts USB to allow me the use of the I²S input which I prefer. And, to my ears, makes the X26pro sound like an even better DAC than without it. If it did not, I would be returning it. But it makes a very nice difference. Very happy with it.

 

[Igor Gaich]

Не для меня и, впрочем, с F1A у меня нет полноценного декодирования mqa. Значительное улучшение звука с F20 Beta для меня

strange, you have a completely opposite opinion against mine, maybe it is somehow connected with the source in front of the DAC ..... my source is a laptop with ROON installed ..... And what is your source?

 

[Giangi71]

strange, you have a completely opposite opinion against mine, maybe it is somehow connected with the source in front of the DAC ..... my source is a laptop with ROON installed ..... And what is your source?

RPi4 and Roon

 

[Igor Gaich]

Good day to all !
I want to share one drawback of the DAC that I discovered.
Every time after playing any DSD512 file (22.5 MHz), a specific noise appears in one of the channels .... To remove it, just turn the DAC off and on. if such files are not in the list, then the noise will not appear at all.
What I did I put back the F1A firmware and the problem disappeared (I had previously installed F20Beta)

The DAC worked for some time during the day with the F1A firmware returned back. And I will say that the problem of noise after playing DSD 512 and 256 also unfortunately remained ... I really don't know what the matter is .... I hope this will be eliminated in the next firmware versions .... DSD is not yet so widespread, to For example, I have only a few files, but I still wanted versatility for the future.
Noise appears in the right channel

 

[Giangi71]

The DAC worked for some time during the day with the F1A firmware returned back. And I will say that the problem of noise after playing DSD 512 and 256 also unfortunately remained ... I really don't know what the matter is .... I hope this will be eliminated in the next firmware versions .... DSD is not yet so widespread, to For example, I have only a few files, but I still wanted versatility for the future.
Noise appears in the right channel

Mine is perfect. Probably a defective device?

 

[Igor Gaich]

Mine is perfect. Probably a defective device?

probably it is ...

 

[thejck]

Is there any place I can get DSD 512 if i want to test this? i have been able to find upto 256.

 

[Igor Gaich]

the fact is that I also found only 256 and the same problem with it, and I got 512 with the help of a converter, in order to check the capabilities of the DAC and it copes with it, but again noise ... .... dsd 64 and 128 haven't tried it yet ....

 

[Igor Gaich]

I also checked Roon bridge today - I installed it on a second computer and connected a DAC to it, and a laptop as a roon core, with dsd the same problem ...

 

[thejck]

i am using usb out of a pc to the x26. and roon brige. i didnt get any noise or pops. do you have a bad recording?

 

[Igor Gaich]

Я использую USB от ПК к x26. и рун бридж. я не слышал ни шума, ни хлопков. у тебя плохая запись?

нет, с записью все нормально, но в наушниках слышен посторонний шум, который на фонограмме становится все лучше, он небольшой, но слышно ... да и то только в правом канале

 

[Igor Gaich]

Gustard X26Pro firmware release (F20 beta)

Changelog: Fixed the noise issue under some Linux based sources. Compatibility optimized. Sound quality reviewed. Reliability improved. Looking forward to getting your feedback.

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Igor Gaich]

Giandi71How did you solve the problem with "wave noise" when playing dsd?