Does the Gustard U18 have the better XO's?

I have been out of loop for several years, and I'm wondering if there are current DAC's out there today that do not require an external DDC for exceptional sound quality. My current DAC is a Metrum Menuet. A DDC is very much needed.

I'm very curious about how it compares to other similarly priced DDC's.

I'm also looking for a new DDC so I guess I'll hitch onto this thread. My trusty DIYINHK DXIO Pro3z died last week after my neighborhood was hit by lightning. I have been out of the DDC and DAC loop for over five years now. So far the Gustard U18 looks like the winner in the $500 price range...

Guys...when you talk about the need of Rockbox FW for gapless playback, do you mean for just lossy files or .WAV's as well?

It's extremely hard to find info on what players are "true gapless". I'm looking for something under $500 and I only play .wav files.... no flac or mp3. The only brand that seems to market gapless playback is iBasso, and they even have a menu setting where you can turn it on and off. This begs...

Thank you. What do you mean by "proper gapless"? What about DAP's that use an Android based OS?

has anybody compiled one?

Did Hifiman ever address the gap issue between tracks? I thought they said it was in future plans. No EQ either. Looks like the last firmware update was 7/31/2017. Did they fix this with the newer Supermini? http://hifiman.com/services

Hello New to this thread and couldn't find what I was looking for. I was hoping if somebody could tell me if the X3ii is true gapless (with or without rockbox). Was the X3ii originally called the X3+ before release? Thanks.

Hello. Have my eye on this X3. Any other comparable players that I should research?

Woah, thanks for posting that.

Did ya get it finished? Would love to hear about it or see pics.

    Hello, did you ever complete the write-up on the Soekris DAC? Thanks.

Haha. Thank you very much for that info. Greatly appreciated. I'll keep an eye out for the uber.