[Lucus]

Thanks joco for feedback. I dont know but why should a Gustard A26 be better than a H90 with LPS ? There is objectively no reason why....

 

[camrector]

Pfff...21 pages and only discussions about bugs/internet settings and other software issues...
Can somebody report on the pure sound quality ? Is it equal to The Gustard A26 ? What does a linear PS brings as improvement ? With the LSP, is the H90 equal to the A26 ? and compared to the FIIO K9 (same price, same chips...) what is better ?
So Interesting things, not IT stuff....

It wouldn’t sound as good without all the “IT” things being fixed.
Linear power supply will improve sound quality.
A26 uses 2 Ak4499 chips. 1 per channel so no it won’t be as good as an A26 performance wise.
But now us “IT” guys got Gustard to provide DSD direct, HQplayer with DSD256, family rates of 44.1, and filter set to wide, will sound phenomenal.

 

[Lucus]

Thanks, but I don't listen to DSD (to few offerings, and not very interesting ones...). And I have a very competent streamer/player.
Tht's true, the A26 has double chips, that's a point

 

[camrector]

Thanks joco for feedback. I dont know but why should a Gustard A26 be better than a H90 with LPS ? There is objectively no reason why....

Of course there is. Dual mono akm4499 chips, discrete output stage, higher quality clocks, etc etc. Many differences.

 

[camrector]

Thanks, but I don't listen to DSD (to few offerings, and not very interesting ones...). And I have a very competent streamer/player.
Tht's true, the A26 has double chips, that's a point

HQplayer converts/upsamples everything to DSD if you want it to. (Highly advised)
It’s unlikely that your streamer will be able to better the R26/A26/AH90 internal renderer, that is unless you spent over $1500 on it.

 

[Lucus]

...I have....
And to be honest, I am rather a friend of NOS: Each time that I listen to these heavily treated HiRes files I always feel "not in the music" and rather a spectator of a technical performance. So no DSD for me

 

[camrector]

...I have....
And to be honest, I am rather a friend of NOS: Each time that I listen to these heavily treated HiRes files I always feel "not in the music" and rather a spectator of a technical performance. So no DSD for me

Then a $600 dac isn’t going to do your streamer any justice.
I would look at Dacs costing at least double than what your streamer cost.
Dacs that don’t specialize in network capability like the R26/A26/AH90

 

[camrector]

Then a $600 dac isn’t going to do your streamer any justice.
I would look at Dacs costing at least double than what your streamer cost.
Dacs that don’t specialize in network capability like the R26/A26/AH90

...I have....
And to be honest, I am rather a friend of NOS: Each time that I listen to these heavily treated HiRes files I always feel "not in the music" and rather a spectator of a technical performance. So no DSD for me

I don’t think you understand what DACs do. You are listening to DSD (or a form of it )already. PCM is actually way more digital processing than dsd.
With an analog signal it is first converted to DSD when recorded. It is then put through all types of decimation filters to turn it into PCM. DSD is the most analog a digital signal can get.
OS isn’t your enemy. PCM is

 

[camrector]

...I have....
And to be honest, I am rather a friend of NOS: Each time that I listen to these heavily treated HiRes files I always feel "not in the music" and rather a spectator of a technical performance. So no DSD for me

Here you can follow the path and see for yourself how “heavily treated” what you listen to already is.
DSD allows you to skip all of that, and stay in the music.

 

[Deutschefach]

Pfff...21 pages and only discussions about bugs/internet settings and other software issues...
Can somebody report on the pure sound quality ? Is it equal to The Gustard A26 ? What does a linear PS brings as improvement ? With the LSP, is the H90 equal to the A26 ? and compared to the FIIO K9 (same price, same chips...) what is better ?
So Interesting things, not IT stuff....

Great questions. This unit has a fresh design concept at roughly one third of the price of the A26. The A26 is a vivid experience and has a price to match. The AH90 is not a slouch. The unit is very musical, but the A26 delivers exceptional nuances. The Headphone can run a broad variety of headphones. The Streamer is works as an endpoint for Tidal Connect, and Roon wonderfully. The sound is satisfying and musical.

It might depend on your expectations and musical styles preferences. The AH90 is a streaming DAC and the products in the market it most often is compared to Streaming DACs.
EverSolo DMP-A6
Audalytic AH90
Matrix Audio Mini i4

I found the AH90 worked for me. I don't believe Gustard makes weak products. This one is not the A26 but it is great for the price and performance. The company is looking for ways to expand and their hookup to higher Res streaming providers makes Gustard interesting.

If you want to find reviews where you can hear sound demos with opinion, I have respect for https://www.youtube.com/@Tharbamar. He does Indepth reviews on loads of gear. Tharbamar generally uses the same recording for his sound demos.

I am a musician so I will use a comparison. Ron Carter is a jazz bass legend. One need only listen to any of Miles Davis's albums with his great '60s quintet of Carter, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock and drummer Tony Williams to understand the bassist's singular innovations in music. He is a musical scientist of a sort. You will enjoy his playing on the AH90 but with the A26 you are more likely to hear the unique string type he uses on his double bass.

If you can find good recordings of him, you can use them.

He uses a type of string for his bass called La Bella Blacktape wound double bass strings.
He worked with a company called LaBella, to develop a designed to emulate gut (see their description below, in italics), but with a bit more of the feel and sustain characteristics of steel strings. As a result, many folks who try these strings expect the timbre to have a thumpier, more gut-leaning sort of vibe – with a blunter attack, quick-ish decay, and a shorter sustain characteristic. these strings have a fairly well-defined attack – almost like a steel wound string – and a somewhat more steel-string sort of decay and sustain, though they do have a nice “thump.” They’re just slightly “dampered” to prevent brashness, if that makes sense.

The bottom end is good, and the steel core gives them a strong fundamental. They really don't sound all that much like gut - their pitch is clearer and sustain longer. If you ever heard him play live, you might feel that they sound more like a slightly "muted" steel string.

Here is an interview with him. https://www.stereophile.com/content/musicians-audiophiles-ron-carter

Good luck with your listening and choices.

Can somebody report on the pure sound quality ? Is it equal to The Gustard A26 ? What does a linear PS brings as improvement ? With the LSP, is the H90 equal to the A26 ? and compared to the FIIO K9 (same price, same chips...) what is better ?
So Interesting things, not IT stuff....

 

[Deutschefach]

Pfff...21 pages and only discussions about bugs/internet settings and other software issues...
Can somebody report on the pure sound quality ? Is it equal to The Gustard A26 ? What does a linear PS brings as improvement ? With the LSP, is the H90 equal to the A26 ? and compared to the FIIO K9 (same price, same chips...) what is better ?
So Interesting things, not IT stuff

AKM chips are different from ESS Chips. AKM Chips allow you skip all the PCM conversion and processing and feed 1-bit to the modulators. What we are talking about is a reduction of about 20dB of intermodulation distortion. DSD will sound more lifelike normally. The reason for this is that with ESS chips the internal signal path is over PCM by default, and the art of bypassing under ESS is a series of filters and/or up sampling. That creates the intermodulation distortion which is the artificial quality you are hearing.

 

[camrector]

AKM Chips allow you skip all the PCM conversion and processing and feed 1-bit to the modulators.

Only if the designers activate this feature
on the chips

 

[Deutschefach]

Only if the designers activate this feature
on the chips

Good point! But my explanation and yours combined, describe the design concepts involved in AKK vs ESS chips.
The AH90 required a firmware update to add the call to the chip, to open the bypass. It is selectable on the AH90 menu if you have the proper firmware level on the AH90. Thanks for your clarification. The point I made about the AKK chips vs ESS Sabre is correct and to your point, this explains why the manufacturer updated the firmware. They corrected the release level of the AH90 firmware very shortly after the product release. If you have DSD cds, they will sound more alive on the AH90 in most cases when using DSD Direct.

 

[camrector]

Good point! But my explanation and yours combined, describe the design concepts involved in AKK vs ESS chips.
The AH90 required a firmware update to add the call to the chip, to open the bypass. It is selectable on the AH90 menu if you have the proper firmware level on the AH90. Thanks for your clarification. The point I made about the AKK chips vs ESS Sabre is correct and to your point, this explains why the manufacturer updated the firmware. They corrected the release level of the AH90 firmware very shortly after the product release. If you have DSD cds, they will sound more alive on the AH90 in most cases when using DSD Direct.

Yeah it was me who pressured Gustard to update the firmware

 

[Deutschefach]

Yeah it was me who pressured Gustard to update the firmware

True. You managed to make quite a few remarks about the AH90 early on that were a bit snarky. You didn't buy one either. If I had an A or A 26 I wouldn't either. I am glad I did purchase the AH90. It is musical, versatile and has super price vs performance. I am not completely convinced that paying the extra one thousand for the A26 is worth it either.