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Measurements of Gustard X26 Pro Dual 9038 Pro By L7Audiolab

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pimy

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Jun 17, 2020
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As with all Gustard's:

Hey GUSTARD can you make your volume font a tad BIGGER please?

@gustard

X16 and X26 Pro ;)

dscf0482.jpg
 

foxtrot

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Mar 13, 2021
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Finally, today I received X26pro. The font is great for people with normal vision. Looks very harmonious to the body. The sound is fantastic. But the driver or firmware XMOS216 caused irritation, discontent and a lot of problems with my records, which I had been collecting for thirty years.

Surprising for such a price so outrageously executed software. I have a Khadas Tone2pro with the same XMOS216 - works flawlessly with my players and all my recordings.

And X26pro (with the same XMOS216) works just disgustingly with my records, which I have been collecting for thirty years! He does not see them in their format and therefore does not reproduce them. This Gustard X26pro normally works with only one player, the one indicated by the manufacturer in the instruction manual. Why am I being forced to have a bad sounding software player? Is foobar2000 version higher than one ?? It sounds sluggish, it spoils the sound quality of the X26pro!
I tried to foobar2000 version greater than one go ten years, but the sound of the player always makes me rejection.
Why do I need X26pro, which is tied to only one player? What to do with such problems? Wait for normal firmware or sell X26pro? Programmers, think about it!

Later I will try to describe the problems of X26pro and possibly the reasons for their occurrence due to low-quality software made. The sound is very good, but the firmware spoils everything. Manufacturer, what are we going to do? Maybe you can make the software work properly? I do not need only one software player foobar2000 versions after the first, it has a bad sound. Maybe X26pro can play like Khadas Tone2pro for $200 with all players and all file formats ??? Or does the manufacturer offer us all to return the unfinished X26pro to him?

I received X26pro today. I was very disappointed today!
 

Veri

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Finally, today I received X26pro. The font is great for people with normal vision. Looks very harmonious to the body. The sound is fantastic. But the driver or firmware XMOS216 caused irritation, discontent and a lot of problems with my records, which I had been collecting for thirty years.

Surprising for such a price so outrageously executed software. I have a Khadas Tone2pro with the same XMOS216 - works flawlessly with my players and all my recordings.

And X26pro (with the same XMOS216) works just disgustingly with my records, which I have been collecting for thirty years! He does not see them in their format and therefore does not reproduce them. This Gustard X26pro normally works with only one player, the one indicated by the manufacturer in the instruction manual. Why am I being forced to have a bad sounding software player? Is foobar2000 version higher than one ?? It sounds sluggish, it spoils the sound quality of the X26pro!
I tried to foobar2000 version greater than one go ten years, but the sound of the player always makes me rejection.
Why do I need X26pro, which is tied to only one player? What to do with such problems? Wait for normal firmware or sell X26pro? Programmers, think about it!

Later I will try to describe the problems of X26pro and possibly the reasons for their occurrence due to low-quality software made. The sound is very good, but the firmware spoils everything. Manufacturer, what are we going to do? Maybe you can make the software work properly? I do not need only one software player foobar2000 versions after the first, it has a bad sound. Maybe X26pro can play like Khadas Tone2pro for $200 with all players and all file formats ??? Or does the manufacturer offer us all to return the unfinished X26pro to him?

I received X26pro today. I was very disappointed today!
You use a lot of words but I've no idea what isn't working in your old version of foobar. In any case your personal software set-up seems hardly 'usual'.
Just send it back if it doesn't work for you :confused:
 

fluxcapacitor

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Dec 27, 2020
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Interesting, I wonder how accurate that tool is? I'm not trying to say you are wrong or anything, it just seems surprising to me given that even at 33 degrees the estimated life is still only 2.3 years. I'm sure most if not all of us would not find it acceptable for a $1500 dac to fail after such a short period of time (or any electronic item at any price really).

I just checked using the nichicon tool for the 105 degree rated one at 33 degrees which gave 9.8 years. That seems a bit more like what I would expect and I imagine they probably under estimate a bit and that's assuming it's turned on 24/7 (does turning off/on increase wear or not have an effect?). I suppose the real test will be in 2/3 years if there are a lot of reports of failure!
those values are at maximum current applied to the capacitors. Considering this is a dac, current drawn from the caps will be at minimums and you can expect 10years+ lifetime easily. My concern would be genuineness of the capacitors used.What i see is really high quality audio caps all around.
 

TK750

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Apr 19, 2021
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those values are at maximum current applied to the capacitors. Considering this is a dac, current drawn from the caps will be at minimums and you can expect 10years+ lifetime easily. My concern would be genuineness of the capacitors used.What i see is really high quality audio caps all around.

I see, so the ripple values would be lower than the previous calculations? I can't say I know much about electrical engineering so I will take your word for it! I don't see much reason to think the components wouldn't be genuine, so hopefully nothing to worry about =].
 

Awdeyo

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Aug 10, 2021
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One last problem I had with this DAC is that my antivirus Malwarebytes did not like this product. Once installed I could not uninstall the Gustard 5.0 USB drivers. Malwarebytes was throwing everything into quarantine. As an administrator for 7 years in IT I can tell you that the major USA corporations use Malwarebytes for detecting malware. It's possible that this was a false positive but I wasn't too thrilled.

View attachment 138445
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/detections/malware-heuristic/
It's based on behaviour/heuristics. I believe this is happening because the executables are not digitally signed. Gustard can also approach Malwarebytes and get their exes whitelisted.
 

cichom

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Aug 28, 2021
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What do you think about combo gustard x26 pro + benchmark ahb2 without analog preamp? Would it works fine? I've tested gustard, but there is no benchmark distributor in my country so it's hard to test them both
 
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Rantenti

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Mar 11, 2021
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It is ridiculous that a DAC would need a cooling fan. I see that there are no vents on top but heat sink would probably be a better solution - for a problem caused by bad design in the first place.
Just came up here to see if anybody's doing the same as me. I've bought a fan for actively cooling the chassis (this city is so hot that heat sinks don't work well enough). The Noctua NF-S12B REDUX 700 looks like the quietest fan on Earth that is easily purchasable. The question remaining is, whether to put the fan above the machine blowing down, or to put it at the side so that the breeze goes through the vents at one side of the machine and out from the other. The latter is more effective though it blows dust into the machine.

It sounds very good so I hope it could last longer. :)
 

Red@

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Just came up here to see if anybody's doing the same as me. I've bought a fan for actively cooling the chassis (this city is so hot that heat sinks don't work well enough). The Noctua NF-S12B REDUX 700 looks like the quietest fan on Earth that is easily purchasable. The question remaining is, whether to put the fan above the machine blowing down, or to put it at the side so that the breeze goes through the vents at one side of the machine and out from the other. The latter is more effective though it blows dust into the machine.

It sounds very good so I hope it could last longer. :)
at the top sounds legit
 

MiRaGe_BG

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Just came up here to see if anybody's doing the same as me. I've bought a fan for actively cooling the chassis (this city is so hot that heat sinks don't work well enough). The Noctua NF-S12B REDUX 700 looks like the quietest fan on Earth that is easily purchasable. The question remaining is, whether to put the fan above the machine blowing down, or to put it at the side so that the breeze goes through the vents at one side of the machine and out from the other. The latter is more effective though it blows dust into the machine.

It sounds very good so I hope it could last longer. :)
Above the DAC is pointless as there aren't any holes located there. You have to put the fan on the right side where the vent holes are located and the fan must suck the hot air from inside, not to blow it in there. So pay attention for the fan direction. I did it this way (two Noctua 60mm 12V , working on 5V):
 

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Rantenti

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Above the DAC is pointless as there aren't any holes located there. You have to put the fan on the right side where the vent holes are located and the fan must suck the hot air from inside, not to blow it in there. So pay attention for the fan direction. I did it this way (two Noctua 60mm 12V , working on 5V):

The size of the fans looks like they were tailored made for the X26 pro.

Blowing cooler air onto the top of the chassis should enhance passive cooling. The chassis is cooler and thus is a better heat sink than it being hot,
but your setup is definitely much more effective! I need to check out those 6cm fans!
 

Rantenti

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Above the DAC is pointless as there aren't any holes located there. You have to put the fan on the right side where the vent holes are located and the fan must suck the hot air from inside, not to blow it in there. So pay attention for the fan direction. I did it this way (two Noctua 60mm 12V , working on 5V):
I made a "funnel" which fitted firmly over both air vents on the right side of the machine and connected the funnel to my 12cm noctua fan. I detected nearly no air entry from the vents on left side of the chassis, much less than the air blowing out from the fan (which in turn was much less than when the fan was free standing). Apparently the fan was experiencing resistance in drawing air from within the machine, and was instead drawing air from the space between the frame and the edges of the blades and blowing it out.

Checking photos of the interior of the X26 pro, it appears that high "walls" reaching the ceiling of the chassis have divided the interior into three separate rooms. Air can only circulate through small crevices between compartments (circled in red). The air vents on the left side are mostly blocked by cables etc (outlined in green).

I've always found that only the right side of the X26 pro gets hot, perhaps you might experiment by taking away one of the two fans so that air enters one right-side vent and exits through the fan sitting on the other right-side vent, and see if air flow actually improves.

I have not opened the machine myself. Please let me know if I am in error about the interior.
 

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Highfive99

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Interesting about the differences the heat this DAC generates. I've had my X26 pro for 2 weeks now. Burned it in for 120hrs straight. Mine got only slightly warm to the touch. Same when used now. Nothing that I would consider warm, hot or even remotely needing a fan.
 

Rottmannash

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Interesting about the differences the heat this DAC generates. I've had my X26 pro for 2 weeks now. Burned it in for 120hrs straight. Mine got only slightly warm to the touch. Same when used now. Nothing that I would consider warm, hot or even remotely needing a fan.
Do you really believe DACs "burn in"?
 

Human Bass

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This thread reminds how happy I am with my notebook plugged to my A30pro via USB and that's it. Then I listen to Spotify, YouTube and the occasional flac lol
 

Highfive99

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Do you really believe DACs "burn in"?
In my experience with the the DAC I received, absolutely. 1st 4-5hrs of listening to it out of the box I could hear it was better than my existing old PS Audio DAC but I was underwhelmed by the difference. I was not hearing what the reviewers were raving on about this DAC. After burn-in I was immediately overwhelmed by the both the difference to my old DAC and by how I was now hearing what reviewers were raving about. My ears convinced me burn-in is real and makes a difference. At least for the X26 Pro I received it did. FWIW Denafrips, for their Pontus II, recommended to a reviewer to burn-in 10 days before critical listening.
 
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