Review and Measurements of Gustard DAC-X26

[SmarterthanU]

Can we have a reference substantiatung this statement please?

Only have anecdotal evidence of family and friends who do not want to stop listening to my dCS system after years of trying to get them interested in my previous audio systems which included a lot of different chip dacs and they could care less until they heard the dCS Paganini dac and clock. Now I can't get them to leave at times they get so into listening.

 

[daftcombo]

Only have anecdotal evidence of family and friends who do not want to stop listening to my dCS system after years of trying to get them interested in my previous audio systems which included a lot of different chip dacs and they could care less until they heard the dCS Paganini dac and clock. Now I can't get them to leave at times they get so into listening.

Plain nonsense.

 

[daftcombo]

Listen to them yourself, the noise in DCS is by design and still sounds better than any off the shelf chip design by a huge margin.

Noise by design?!
Stop trolling please.

 

[gvl]

Only have anecdotal evidence of family and friends who do not want to stop listening to my dCS system after years of trying to get them interested in my previous audio systems which included a lot of different chip dacs and they could care less until they heard the dCS Paganini dac and clock. Now I can't get them to leave at times they get so into listening.

I had a Metrum Pavane for about a year. I thought it was good, I still do. Very easy to listen to, etc. In the end I came to conclusion that it just colors the sound in pleasing ways so I sold it as the fact I had 4 figures locked in an effects box started to annoy me. I suspect your case is similar.

 

[SmarterthanU]

dCS DACs oversample in several stages, eventually presenting the Ring DAC(TM) with 5-bit binary data at about 3MS/s. The Mapper decodes the data to a minimum of 32 digital signals, one corresponding to each binary state, then it scrambles the order of the signals. The Mapper randomises small matching errors in the Ring DAC core, converting what would be harmonic distortion to a small amount of extra noise.
Vivaldi DAC v2.00 offers a choice of 3 Mappers – the original 3MS/s design and two new Mapper algorithms that run at about 6MS/s.

 

[JohnYang1997]

dCS DACs oversample in several stages, eventually presenting the Ring DAC(TM) with 5-bit binary data at about 3MS/s. The Mapper decodes the data to a minimum of 32 digital signals, one corresponding to each binary state, then it scrambles the order of the signals. The Mapper randomises small matching errors in the Ring DAC core, converting what would be harmonic distortion to a small amount of extra noise.
Vivaldi DAC v2.00 offers a choice of 3 Mappers – the original 3MS/s design and two new Mapper algorithms that run at about 6MS/s.

Please post real world measurements of performance such as THD spectrum, residue noise integration, dynamic range according to aes, Multitone spectrum, IMD vs level etc

 

[JohnYang1997]

Two very famous examples are Audio-gd and Chord. Both reinventing the wheels but one is shit one is the state of art.

 

[SmarterthanU]

Plain nonsense.

Not any more nonsense than making up a measuring unit that adds together two electronic physical properties that are independent in nature and then using that made up unit to draw conclusions on sound quality that is, in turn, dependent on neurological perception of auditory stimulation.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Not any more nonsense than making up a measuring unit that adds together two electronic physical properties that are independent in nature and then using that made up unit to draw conclusions on sound quality that is, in turn, dependent on neurological perception of auditory stimulation.

Lol. Flatearther identified.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Go and make a dac from scratch without any knowledge we have discovered before including ohms law, kcl kvl circuit analysis. And don't ever use any measuring equipment. Go go go. Ohleoleolei!

 

[RayDunzl]

Please post real world measurements

As I remember, DCSs measure pretty well...

Let's see!

https://www.stereophile.com/content/dcs-vivaldi-digital-playback-system-measurements

Well, they had to zoom in on that one...

 

[JohnYang1997]

As I remember, DCSs measure pretty well...

Let's see!

https://www.stereophile.com/content/dcs-vivaldi-digital-playback-system-measurements

You see. The problem is.
First of all, the guy wasn't defending using measurements but rather utter bullshit.
Secondly, they must all have used all kinds of measurements in the design phase. Without measurements this is not going to happen.
Thirdly, I don't really see stereophile's measurements as useful. Even though, according to the measurements here, the noise performance is superb and very low distortion at 50hz. Also with extra aggressive digital filter.
So the questions rising in my head are, how is phase response in audio band, how is the thd at other frequencies, multitone measurements etc.

 

[RayDunzl]

So the questions rising in my head are, how is phase response in audio band, how is the thd at other frequencies, multitone measurements etc.

Opinion:
Given the useless basic measurements offered in the link above, I wouldn't expect much anomalous behavior would be found.

 

[SmarterthanU]

The people on this forum seem to be very angry and unhappy.

 

[JohnYang1997]

The people on this forum seem to be very angry and unhappy.

You do you. We keep laughing.

 

[RayDunzl]

Not me!

Not punching a time clock since 2002 might have something to do with it.

 

[SmarterthanU]

You do you. We keep laughing.

You seem like a very unhappy person.

 

[Frank Dernie]

dCS DACs oversample in several stages, eventually presenting the Ring DAC(TM) with 5-bit binary data at about 3MS/s. The Mapper decodes the data to a minimum of 32 digital signals, one corresponding to each binary state, then it scrambles the order of the signals. The Mapper randomises small matching errors in the Ring DAC core, converting what would be harmonic distortion to a small amount of extra noise.
Vivaldi DAC v2.00 offers a choice of 3 Mappers – the original 3MS/s design and two new Mapper algorithms that run at about 6MS/s.

I have a dCS P8i, it sounds the same as all the other players I have tried even though it produces excellent results from its state of the art digital system as does my Chord DAC, neither of which i use any more since my amplifier has a digital input. I have heard all the more recent dCS kit too since my local dealer sells them. If I was into streaming I would consider the streamer box.
My system sounds great but I have good speakers and put a lot of effort into positioning them and building a dedicated listening room - things that make a noticeable difference, unlike well engineered digital kit which are all audibly transparent IME.
I largely gave up dicking about with equipment once I had carefully level match auditioned a range of DACs in a range from £1100 to £14,000 and found them all so close I couldn't reliably choose which was which - though non-standard filters did effect the SQ, so if liked there are DACs out there with different reconstruction filters and upsampling choices.

 

[daftcombo]

I have a dCS P8i, it sounds the same as all the other players I have tried even though it produces excellent results from its state of the art digital system as does my Chord DAC, neither of which i use any more since my amplifier has a digital input. I have heard all the more recent dCS kit too since my local dealer sells them. If I was into streaming I would consider the streamer box.
My system sounds great but I have good speakers and put a lot of effort into positioning them and building a dedicated listening room - things that make a noticeable difference, unlike well engineered digital kit which are all audibly transparent IME.
I largely gave up dicking about with equipment once I had carefully level match auditioned a range of DACs in a range from £1100 to £14,000 and found them all so close I couldn't reliably choose which was which - though non-standard filters did effect the SQ, so if liked there are DACs out there with different reconstruction filters and upsampling choices.

People did the same as you with DACs from 29$ to 3000$ and had the same results once level-matched and FR-matched.

 

[Frank Dernie]

People did the same as you with DACs from 29$ to 3000$ and had the same results once level-matched and FR-matched.

I don't think there was yet a DAC that cheap when I did it 9 years ago! Now everything is on readily available inexpensive ICs it is pretty cheap to do what required a lot of parts to do back then.