Gustard X26Pro Review (Balanced High-end DAC)

[dmidu]

I really appreciate your answer but I must admit 90% of it is over my head. I guess I need to ask if the JRiver MC filters are any good by someone that can test it for me. Thanks!

Have you tried any other player except JRiver? I've tried JRiver, but I didn't like it compared to Foobar2000 or MPD exactly because of the reason that I could find more information in the open source community of those two player. Although, I must admit that even though some information is very hard to find and had to try out everything on my own. Foobar2000 seems the easiest of all, but so far I like MPD on Linux mostly (especially for bit perfect playback).

 

[UCrazyKid]

Have you tried any other player except JRiver? I've tried JRiver, but I didn't like it compared to Foobar2000 or MPD exactly because of the reason that I could find more information in the open source community of those two player. Although, I must admit that even though some information is very hard to find and had to try out everything on my own. Foobar2000 seems the easiest of all, but so far I like MPD on Linux mostly (especially for bit perfect playback).

I’m a Mac user. I’ve used iTunes with BitPerfect App and I have used JRiver. I like JRiver for the additional options and shaving an iPhone App remote for it is a huge plus. I’ve now adjusted JRiver to use SoX for resembling and I have all 44.1 (and multiples) being upsampled to 705.6KHz and all 48KHz and multiples being upsampled to 768KHz then USB to my x26 Pro and the sound is improved to me.

 

[gvl]

There’s really no reason to upsample in software on these DACs. That ringing mentioned earlier is a non-issue.

 

[alpha_logic]

The reports of heat generated by this unit is preventing me from purchasing it… if it weren’t for the heat, it is really an ideally laid out DAC. I hope Gustard comes out with a model which throws out the class A portion and improves heat dissipation. I’m not sold on the benefits of class A anyway.

All analog output stages of any DAC I've seen are class A, in fact most 'small signal' output stages on any device (preamps, etc) are class A. The heat generated by the X26 is mostly generated by the I/V stage and the dual ES9038 pro DAC chips.

 

[Igor Gaich]

Good day to all !
Today I tried HQplayer. Without ROON yet, I used my PC Lenovo with WIN10 with GUSTARD X26pro DAC output. I really liked this program because listening to my local files all day I noticed that simply resampling from 44.1 kHz to 705.6 or 768 kHz is not very noticeable to the ear. But the conversion to DSD512 really improves the sound of my DAC, it becomes less harsh on upper frequencies. This experience confirms that ESS9038pro, being a delta-sigma converter, prefers a ready-made DSD stream at its input, rather than forming it on the fly....

 

[gvl]

Modern DAC chips usually convert incoming DSD to PCM first to allow volume control, so whatever (you think) you hear likely has nothing to do with the chip being DS “preferring “ DSD format.

 

[Igor Gaich]

well, I need to analyze this moment .... but the difference in presentation was ...

 

[axyoung9022]

@Igor Gaich When you try PolyNominal 1 Filter with upsampled input to PCM 705.6 or 768 kHz in HQPlayer and set X26Pro NOS on, Real neutral sound can be achieved, even better than DSD 512 which can not support PolyNominal 1 Filter.

 

[Jmanner]

As a fellow X26Pro owner I can tell you that mine gets warm after several hours but never HOT.
I use mine as a DAC only and think that maybe the owners complaining of excessive heat are using theirs as a DAC/PRE.

The heat then being possibly due to the combination of working harder (as a DAC and Pre) and potential impedance match issues with certain power amps...........just a guess though.

Hi Linger63 is there a specific way or setting on the X26 Pro to make it operate as a DAC only?

 

[linger63]

Hi Linger63 is there a specific way or setting on the X26 Pro to make it operate as a DAC only?

Don't believe so.
I just set vol to max.

 

[Igor Gaich]

Good afternoon everyone, in general, I did some analysis of the work of my x26pro along with the hqplayer program. I did blind tests and 10 out of 10 guessed the sound without converting to dsd and with conversion. Once again, when a PCM source simply increases the sampling rate, this doesn’t give anything by ear, but if we convert to DSD, the result is noticeable, if subjectively described, then "cymbals" sound more refined with conversion, and without it more harsh, this is noticeable with NEO CD2 tweeters and isodynamic headphones (with conventional tweeters and conventional headphones, the difference is less noticeable)

 

[Igor Gaich]

What do I do next, this is a technical forum, I think to myself, or maybe this is not an improvement at all, but some kind of nice color, like in the case of tube amplifiers ....
And here the HQ player settings help me, there you can set support 48 DSD (adaptive output rate), x26pro supports it, so this mode provides the best sound, but when the files from the 48 grid were forcibly converted to the 44.1 grid or vice versa 44.1 into a grid multiple of 48, I got the same "harsh "high-frequency sound as in the case without using the pcm to dsd conversion using hqplayer.
And then it became clear to me if the wrong conversion sounds the same as its absence, then the correct conversion is an improvement.

 

[Igor Gaich]

And I will clarify this experience with my DAC and Lenovo laptop.
I admit that maybe my laptop, not being a dedicated audio transport, may somehow stream PCM worse than DSD. Perhaps with other sources for the DAC, the difference from using HQplayer would not be so noticeable....

 

[axyoung9022]

@Igor Gaich Just give you a bit of information for reference:

MEASUREMENTS: A Look At HQPlayer 3.25; Filtering, Dithering and DSD Conversion.

A blog for audiophiles about more objective topics. Measurements of audio gear. Reasonable, realistic, no snakeoil assessment of sound, and equipment.

archimago.blogspot.com

"... conversion of the 24-bit PCM signal to DSD results in added noise at varying levels which were not intrusive in my listening. Remember, the addition of noise to the signal when we use DSD is inevitable and chasing after a "better" sound is essentially about listening for the "euphonic distortion" of the conversion process. That preference would be idiosyncratic to specific listeners and perhaps DACs. There is no "new information" being added that was not there already in the PCM data." --- Archimago

 

[Alfer]

Buenas tardes.
Podrían indicarme como descargar, si existe. Les firmware f20 para el x26 pro, la versión definitiva no la beta.
Muchas gracias y saludos

 

[UCrazyKid]

Buenas tardes.
Podrían indicarme como descargar, si existe. Les firmware f20 para el x26 pro, la versión definitiva no la beta.
Muchas gracias y saludos

I have only ever seen the beta version posted.

 

[Barone Birra]

Sounds absolutely incredible. And I've been blessed to have good, if not exotic, DAC (Bel Canto 3.5VB, Mytek Manhattan, Auralic Vega, Weiss 502, Okto Research, etc.).

I was eyeing maybe the purchase of a Weiss Dac 501, do you think the X26 Pro is on the same level (despite not having all its DSP elements)?

 

[Wino]

Prefer the Holo May to Weiss and Gustard. I have Gustard for my outside system, sounds great. Holo May sounds better. All comments are completely subjective...

 

[linger63]

Prefer the Holo May to Weiss and Gustard. I have Gustard for my outside system, sounds great. Holo May sounds better. All comments are completely subjective...

As the base model Holo May is already around 4x the price of the Gustard you would hope it would offer a better experience of some kind!!!!!!!
As you also prefer it to the (even more expensive) Weiss maybe it's R2R ladder design is just your preferred sound presentation.

Might be worth having a look then at the Denafrips Terminator which seems quite popular amongst R2R fans.

 

[Wino]

As the base model Holo May is already around 4x the price of the Gustard you would hope it would offer a better experience of some kind!!!!!!!
As you also prefer it to the (even more expensive) Weiss maybe it's R2R ladder design is just your preferred sound presentation.

Might be worth having a look then at the Denafrips Terminator which seems quite popular amongst R2R fans.

Tried the Terminator and preferred the Holo May. Was just giving my opinion regarding the Weiss is all... Weiss is close to 10K if you want to compare $$. I have a delta sigma (Gustard) and R2R (Holo May). Yes, prefer the Holo May to Gustard. For the $$ I don't think you can go wrong with the Gustard though. Between the two, I am done purchasing DAC's.