Is this Gustard X16 broken?

[damaged_goods]

I received my second-hand Gustard X16 the other day and it sounds absolutely horrible in NOS mode. In oversampling mode it sounds fine (can’t really hear a difference compared my WiiM Ultra’s integrated DAC). So I measured the in-room response and in NOS mode it rolls off steeply at 6kHz. There’s got to be some issue with it, no?

 

[Sokel]

If NOS corresponds to the red or blue one no,not broken,just really bad filter:

Gustard x16 roll off fast starting around 8khz

Okay, I found some time to measure my Gustard X16 using REW and a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (gen2). Not the best measurement gear, but adequate to get an idea of what's going on. Here's the frequency response given eleven different input formats: Note: the scale is only 1 dB (very zoomed in)...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[damaged_goods]

If NOS corresponds to the red or blue one no,not broken,just really bad filter:

View attachment 424875

View attachment 424876

Gustard x16 roll off fast starting around 8khz

Okay, I found some time to measure my Gustard X16 using REW and a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (gen2). Not the best measurement gear, but adequate to get an idea of what's going on. Here's the frequency response given eleven different input formats: Note: the scale is only 1 dB (very zoomed in)...

www.audiosciencereview.com

It does not respond at all to those graphs. Look again at my X-axis, the NOS mode response rolls off several thousand hertz earlier than OS mode. Which filter I choose makes no difference in this context.

 

[Sokel]

Your green response corresponds to the blue NON NOS one.Mislabeled filters maybe?
If your measurements are some meters away and off the tweeter level even by cm you could have such results.
Maybe measure at a meter or so.

 

[damaged_goods]

Your green response corresponds to the blue NON NOS one.Mislabeled filters maybe?
If your measurements are some meters away and off the tweeter level even by cm you could have such results.
Maybe measure at a meter or so.

Mislabeled filters in the graphs you refer to in that case. Mine are correct.

I did a measurement 30 cm fronm tweeter and the result is more or less the same. NOS is completely unlistenable. It’s like a wet blanket thrown over speakers with the table rolled off that much. Here’s the result from close-up measurement:

 

[Sokel]

Mislabeled filters in the graphs you refer to in that case. Mine are correct.

I did a measurement 30 cm fronm tweeter and the result is more or less the same. NOS is completely unlistenable. It’s like a wet blanket thrown over speakers with the table rolled off that much. Here’s the result from close-up measurement:

View attachment 424989

That's surely looks like broken.
Any other users reporting the same?Did you contact Gustard?

 

[damaged_goods]

That's surely looks like broken.
Any other users reporting the same?Did you contact Gustard?

Not heard of anyone else reporting the same thing, that’s why I wanted to check with the forum here.

I haven’t contacted Gustard because I honestly don’t know how. I don’t think they have their own customer support, maybe it’s possible to do through Shenzhen Audio?

In any case, I bought it second-hand, so I doubt it would fall under warranty. :/

 

[damaged_goods]

Seems like this is not a faulty unit but a faulty design. Geez!

Gustard X16 MQA DAC

after so many dacs .. I finally hear the sundara playing divinely without screaming in the mid-high range

www.head-fi.org

 

[voodooless]

NOS mode without upsampling significantly is an abomination that should be forbidden. The addition roll-off is deliberate. See the manual:

DAC-X16 has NOS, when this option is ON. Pass through the internal 8 times oversamplingfilter, and send the original samples to the modulator. This option is suitable for playingoriginal mastering files with high sampling rate above CD format. It is also suitable to usethe signal after the software player upsampler.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Seems like this is not a faulty unit but a faulty design. Geez!

Non-Over-Sampling that does NOT have a reconstruction filter is broken by design. It doesn't matter who makes it.

 

[AnalogSteph]

This kinda looks like a DSD filter, actually. In any case, it's for use with 176.4k input at a minimum, 192k and up preferred. As mentioned, this feature is mainly intended for use with software upsampling.

 

[damaged_goods]

Thanks for educating me, everybody who replied. I will just leave NOS mode off.

 

[Mnyb]

Thanks for educating me, everybody who replied. I will just leave NOS mode off.

yes a certain kind of audiophile are filter fiddlers they apply NOS mode or similar then use elaborate software setups with massive up sampling and filters they apply themselves , basically making everything 384kHz 32 bit or high level DSD then sending it to the DAC . That the DAC chip themselves already have built in up sampler of sufficiently good enough quality is a fact they ignore ? Software filters run on your PC can be of course be "better" but it's academic it's already below our puny hearing abilities .

It's also a game where you are very likely o get it wrong somehow as you tune all kinds of coefficients etc and then it sounds different Bingo ! different=better


I'll award a gold medal to the DAC manufacturers that simply removes the filter menu and makes an engineering choice and stick it to a correct setting !