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Gustard X26Pro Review (Balanced High-end DAC)

Francis Vaughan said:
I had one of those, an FH-5. My sister stole it years ago, she may still have it.
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One of the very first things I had to repair when employed by a local pawnbroker as his technician (I was still at school in grade 9 or 10) was a Sony FH-7. The autoreverse cassette mech gears and head block rotator were damaged due to forced ejecting when raised. What a mechanism. I'll never forget it. But all parts were available from Sony.

And I know how you feel, I "loaned" my sister (when she went to a Uni share house) the first real amplifer I built, an EA Playmaster 40/40 (with the C-core Txf and relay protection) and never saw it again...

Anyway, I've hijacked @amirm 's excellent review thread and I'm sorry.
 
Sir Sanders Zingmore said:
I wonder what it is about this dac that gets it the “high-end” label in the title? I’m hoping it’s not the price…
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Idk man.
Screenshot_20210703-171739.jpg
 
This dac measures well. It has more than the usual connections. There are plenty of transports out there that deliver through aes or i2s. And there are existing high end users with external clocks. All these inputs are for the flexibility of the user and I think the price is for that market.
Go Gustard. Love this brand.
 
Having owned gustard h10 and h20 headphone amps for about 5 years they have performed well without any problems. i Also have a LKS m004 dac and some topping products that also have high value but if they do fail(which none have yet) that value goes way down because of the difficulty to get repaired if needed. Buying Chinese made products you have to evaluate if the product is worth the risk. I also own some Schitt gear, I like made in USA when I can find good value, but the Chinese sure can engineer some good value gear if your ok with the downside.
 
Sir Sanders Zingmore said:
I wonder what it is about this dac that gets it the “high-end” label in the title? I’m hoping it’s not the price…
Click to expand...

I guess they could increase the price to make it properly high end. Perhaps charge $10,000. They would need to redesign the case if they did that. The market would expect 15mm thick CNC cut aluminium and a 10mm thick steel bottom to add some weight. But it probably performs too well, so transformer coupled outputs or some other amusing tweak might be in order to garner the sort of sales they would want.

In reality it isn't overpriced for what it is. Development would not have been trivial, and it fits into a market niche. If it sells well it is worth what people pay for it. It gets as close to perfect as you might reasonably ever want. There is some gratuitous technology in it that bulks the price out a bit, but not inordinately. The Topping D90SE is cheaper, but in the same ballpark.

Personally I could never see the value. We reached peak DAC some time ago. I might pay extra for balanced outputs, but a large fraction of what I need is covered by much cheaper very high performing gear. Above $500 anything is just bragging rights. We live in great times.
 
I tested this one on my site. Its brilliant. The best Delta-Sigma DAC ever, better than my old favourite MA X-Sabre Pro ver. 2. Of course XLR, of course good pre/amp (like A90 - my ring) and you are in heaven. Audio heaven. Just my opinion. Great implementation of SPDIF and I2S btw - works great with old ATV 2 gen (hack) in Apple Music (ALAC only, not AAC, full quality, optic interface), smooth with fat PS3 (streamer modded, without loud fan, with SSD and downgrade fw) and Matrix X-SPDIF 2 (native 22.4MHz DSPie PCM->DSD @ PC). No minus here. First time.

http://hd-opinie.pl/13828,audio,gustard-x26pro-i-dalej-nie-szukasz-high-end-w-dumpingowej-cenie.html (summary also in english not only polish) ;-)

This project is one of most ambitious (history of D/S converters), no doubt. Check board, components, technical project here! They do (in my opinion) smth like Bugatti V, and its not too expensive at all - see different D/S flagships from China (diff. Asia countries = +1000$ or more btw)... like great MA Sabre Pro ****** MQA for example. More $$$? More.
 
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I'm not sure if Sony didn't start the "Pro" suffix, because as I recall back in the 80's a lot of their gear was endowed with the "Pro" moniker.

Walkman Pro being one of many so called "Pro" products.
 
Billy Budapest said:
Nobody in North America can produce them? I think the folks at Benchmark, Schiit, Geshelli, JDS Labs, and other North American firms in the top tier of performance would disagree with you!
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They’re not $900. That’s my point.
 
audio_tony said:
I'm not sure if Sony didn't start the "Pro" suffix, because as I recall back in the 80's a lot of their gear was endowed with the "Pro" moniker.

Walkman Pro being one of many so called "Pro" products.
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Maybe. Sony had and has a legit professional division that is one of the best around. Back then I had a Sony Trinitron Profeel monitor as a TV, but they crossed the division as they were also used in professional settings. Many TV studios used them for less than critical monitoring (the critical monitors were a very different beast with eye watering prices.) The Pro Walkmans were all recording models and had some legitimate role for professional applications, not quite a Nagra, but for cheap and cheerful radio journalism I have seen them used. I would find it hard to imagine most domestic consumers being interesting in a recording Walkman. A few maybe.

The MDR-7605 is a real professional division product. When I bought one a zillion years ago it had to be ordered via the professional division. So there is crossover, but a Sony professional label is usually what it says.
 
jtwrace said:
Yeah, it's troubling to me that nobody in North America can design/produce them. I know for a fact it can be manufactured in NA, why people seem to steer clear is beyond me. I simply just don't get it.
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Easy. Can you say cost? Not only mfg but also engineering.
If you dont get this, become a business owner and try to compete in this market. Really tough!
 
audio_tony said:
My (badly stated!) point was that Sony added the pro moniker (to proper pro gear) and others have copied this without any good reason mostly.
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Ah, yes, on that point I will give it to you. But it really did mean professional. For use by people who were using the gear to make their living. It wasn't Sony's fault that nobody else could read a dictionary. :)
I wonder if the professional division felt the need to differentiate themselves from the consumer division.
 
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