[brianfromspace]

Looking at the size of A26, wonder if its good fit/overkill for Headphones? Or is it better fit for speakers system?

Have it under my Nirvana OTL. Fits just right. It’s not as wide as you might think.
Not a 19 inch rack width iirc.

 

[milkdudd]

Looking at the size of A26, wonder if its good fit/overkill for Headphones? Or is it better fit for speakers system?

Unless you're talking about its physical size (only you can decide that) As someone who does both stereo room and headphones with the same equipment, there is no such thing as "overkill" for headphones in my opinion.

 

[DELFT]

I just found this thread. I read the Soundnews review but he didn't talk much about the Gustard A26 streamer and whether it was any good or whether a separate streamer was required.

Do Gustard have their own app to control the streaming? Does it include Qobuz and if so how does their app for Qobuz compare to other others. I wouldn't want to buy the A26 and find the streaming side of it was no good.

If owners use another streamer to feed A26 what do they use? I am not in to complicated setups so if A26 didn't sound good without a fairly straightforward setup then I wouldn't be interested.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[Zaurux]

There is no application to manage the streamer but it is UPNP, Roon and HQPlayer compatible.
Just choose the LAN input and play on the "Gustarender" device.
Only one format can be played. E.g. you have to disconnect from HQPlayer to start a stream from Roon.
For Qobuz, use BubbleUPNP.

 

[DELFT]

There is no application to manage the streamer but it is UPNP, Roon and HQPlayer compatible.
Just choose the LAN input and play on the "Gustarender" device.
Only one format can be played. E.g. you have to disconnect from HQPlayer to start a stream from Roon.
For Qobuz, use BubbleUPNP.

OK thanks for the clarification. Does anyone know how it sounds using Qobuz using BubbleUpNp ? Does a separate streamer sound better?

 

[Zaurux]

OK thanks for the clarification. Does anyone know how it sounds using Qobuz using BubbleUpNp ? Does a separate streamer sound better?

The best quality in the absence of a direct implementation of Qobuz is by playing through HQPlayer. But is not free.
But in any case, removing an external streamer removes the problems of powering the streamer and linking it to the dac (usb or other).
AND the USB input of the A26 is good without being the best. So Qobuz > HQPlayer > A26 is better than my excellent ZenStream.
But you have to judge the dac against your own before judging the dac-streamer.

 

[REXNFX]

The best quality in the absence of a direct implementation of Qobuz is by playing through HQPlayer. But is not free.
But in any case, removing an external streamer removes the problems of powering the streamer and linking it to the dac (usb or other).
AND the USB input of the A26 is good without being the best. So Qobuz > HQPlayer > A26 is better than my excellent ZenStream.
But you have to judge the dac against your own before judging the dac-streamer.

Is gapless when using Bubble/Qobuz?

 

[Zaurux]

I tried for you !!
But I forgot, the "fixed volume" because of the direct DSD! ! WHAOOO !!
After that, no problem... I think the UPNP player inside is GMediaRender.
https://gmrender.nongnu.org
---
Edited : no.. it's upmpdcli.
---

 

[bodhidharma]

I just found this thread. I read the Soundnews review but he didn't talk much about the Gustard A26 streamer and whether it was any good or whether a separate streamer was required.

Do Gustard have their own app to control the streaming? Does it include Qobuz and if so how does their app for Qobuz compare to other others. I wouldn't want to buy the A26 and find the streaming side of it was no good.

If owners use another streamer to feed A26 what do they use? I am not in to complicated setups so if A26 didn't sound good without a fairly straightforward setup then I wouldn't be interested.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Sandu Vitalie instead talked about the streamer section of the A26, in particular he said that according to him the LAN one is the best input of the device and, to be precise, he said he compared this input with the I2S powered by the DDC Denafrips Gaia and the LAN is better

 

[bodiebill2]

Moving the 'pin 15' discussion here as it is about a 'shortcoming' of the A26 (similar as for X26 and R26). Most modern DACs recognize whether the incoming signal is PCM or DSD without needing the DSD flag on this pin, but the Gustard and SMSL DACs require it.

My post:
I am revisting the idea to enable DSD in the following setup:
streamer > USB > Audio-GD DI20HE > I2S > Gustard A26
The A26 expects a 'flag' on pin 15 to let know whether PCM or DSD is sent. However the DI20HE does not send any signal on pin 15. In this setup the A26 always assumes that PCM is playing, so it means I can not play DSD this way. I do not want to discard the DI20HE as it does a great job.
Then I figured, what if I have a breakout DC cable at the source end of the I2S cable, to which I can apply 3.3 VDC to send this flag manually. Of course the breakout DC cable should also have a ground. Where to attach this?
I asked four custom cable manufacturers but only one would consider making such a cable (Phasure). None of them are sure whether it will work.
Before I dare to order something like this, I would welcome any views on this little potential project.

@sajunky then replied:
GND: pin #17
+3.3V: pin #15 (with 1k Ohm resistor in series, 10nF ceramic capacitor to ground (pin #17)
The additional components protect DAC from voltage spikes.

The only cable manufacturer that would consider making such a cable reacted to this suggestion along the lines of:
That will never work, taking a random pin with says GND and having 3.3V over data lines.
Another approach could be the following: the 3.3V could be for a GPIO (General Purpose Input-Output) in the DAC that has 3.3V applied before playing starts. You could ask Gustard where this GPIO resides on the board. If you apply 3.3V to that it might work.

Also @OCC7N pointed to a section in the R26 thread where someone had the opposite problem (no PCM/only DSD in a similar setup) and shorted pin 15 to solve that:
From my findings if you short pin 15 to ground (pin 17 in my case) it forces the R26 to play everything as pcm. That means no dsd, although let me test to see if it will still play dsd but display as pcm. Also, I completely took out the pin 15 conductor from my I2S cable and it still registered as dsd and would not play. So from my experiment it seems that no pin 15 conductor/signal triggers dsd mode. And shorted pin 15 to ground triggers pcm mode. And probably the dsd direct mode doesn’t work, but I’ll check tonight when I get home.

I think I would like to discuss this a bit further before doing anything silly.

A week ago I asked Gustard about the 'pin 15 dilemma' and they suggested I apply 3.3 or 5 VDC to that pin and connect the ground to pin 19. Today I finally made a test cable and it works! It sounds sublime with

Topping M50 > USB > Audio-GD DI20HE > I2S concoction below > A26
with 5 VDC applied to the yellow-brown breakout cable.

So now I will make a cable proper with twisted strands, shielding and a 5 to 3.3 VDC LT3045 converter that I still happen to have. The lower the voltage the better I presume and the LT3045 also cleans things up.

I am a happy camper!

Any suggestions for finalizing the cable, such as type of shielding, would be welcome.

 

[George Hincapie]

A week ago I asked Gustard about the 'pin 15 dilemma' and they suggested I apply 3.3 or 5 VDC to that pin and connect the ground to pin 19. Today I finally made a test cable and it works! It sounds sublime with

Topping M50 > USB > Audio-GD DI20HE > I2S concoction below > A26

when 5 VDC is applied to the yellow-brown breakout cable.

So now I will make a cable proper with twisted strands, shielding and a 5 to 3.3 VDC LT3045 converter that I still happen to have. The lower the voltage the better I presume and the LT3045 also cleans things up.

I am a happy camper!

Any suggestions for finalizing the cable, such as type of shielding, would be welcome.

Just braid it.

 

[sajunky]

A week ago I asked Gustard about the 'pin 15 dilemma' and they suggested I apply 3.3 or 5 VDC to that pin and connect the ground to pin 19. Today I finally made a test cable and it works! It sounds sublime with

Topping M50 > USB > Audio-GD DI20HE > I2S concoction below > A26
with 5 VDC applied to the yellow-brown breakout cable.

Isn't pin #19 bridged internally with the pin #17?

In such case it is equivalent to my suggestion. I know it is.

 

[bodiebill2]

Isn't pin #19 bridged internally with the pin #17?

In such case it is equivalent to my suggestion. I know it is.

Not bridged by me, making the connections. And I do not imagine that 17 and 19 are bridged inside the connectors.

 

[sajunky]

Not bridged by me, making the connections. And I do not imagine that 17 and 19 are bridged inside the connectors.

Not. These pins are bridged inside A26.

 

[bodiebill2]

Only now -- with the DI20HE back in the game -- I can really judge what the A26 is capable of with DSD over I2S. Hard to describe, but clearly much better here than via the LAN input. No going back to PCM for me.