GUSTARD DAC-R26 Balanced Decoder R2R+1Bit Dual Native Decoding Music Bridge

[iSpartan]

Do an analysis with a calibrated Umik1 and REW and correct the room response digitally. You will be surprised...

It's more to do with the system being in a 'family room'. To the left of my left speaker is a TV, until the introduction of the new units I got away with it, but now I can hear a certain intrusion in terms of soundscape. Mrs Spartan is cool but I won't be able to ditch said TV without getting a serious row.

 

[camrector]

How would you compare the pontus 2 to the R26?

R26 is more detailed, has better focus, better clarity, more natural. The R26 beat my Pontus2 and a loaner Venus 2 I was demoing. Wasn’t expecting that to happen at all.

 

[iSpartan]

How would you compare the pontus 2 to the R26?

R26 is far more forward. In the system here, tunes are all enveloping with a wider soundstage. Far punchier and 'musical' to my 58 year old lugs. I loved the Pontus/Iris ( both of which I'll hold on to ) but I'm muchly impressed with the new kit.

 

[Forgisound]

I am very pleased with how the R26 sounds over the LAN input with the Roon software. Roon is on the selected Windows PC. My HiFi is in the signature.
The sound is detailed, dynamic, the stage is huge beyond the width of the speakers. The timbre is very natural.
If I buy an OCK-1 clock, what changes can I expect? Or is OCK-2 much better, maybe more of price difference?

 

[Jake2]

I am very pleased with how the R26 sounds over the LAN input with the Roon software. Roon is on the selected Windows PC. My HiFi is in the signature.
The sound is detailed, dynamic, the stage is huge beyond the width of the speakers. The timbre is very natural.
If I buy an OCK-1 clock, what changes can I expect? Or is OCK-2 much better, maybe more of price difference?

I used way too many words in my review post above, so I'll try to be brief(ish):

• External clocks with much lower jitter than a DAC's internal clock, can improve on the DAC's timing precision. I assume my OCK-1 does this as it improves basically all aspects of the R26's sound but doesn't change its underlying charcter. More precise soundstaging and note decay, better defined notes, from the leading edge to the tail, meaning more impactful and tuneful bass, more realistic vocals that have more texture and body. Everything sounds more relaxed and natural with less 'glare' (I'm not going to say analogue, I promise!).
• OCk2 vs OCK1. OCK2 just released this week, no one has it yet as far as I'm aware. Main audible benefit expected to come from lower phase noise spec of <-115db/1hz vs <-110db for OCK-1. -5db @1hz is a significant and normally very pricey difference in the clock world at these low phase noise levels but as both are minimum perf specs allowing for oscillator variation some OCK-1s may be close to OCK2 perf (eg, -112-114db) and may even have reached -115db in the past. See DI-20 thread here for more on this.

 

[Forgisound]

I used way too many words in my review post above, so I'll try to be brief(ish):

• External clocks with much lower jitter than a DAC's internal clock, can improve on the DAC's timing precision. I assume my OCK-1 does this as it improves basically all aspects of the R26's sound but doesn't change its underlying charcter. More precise soundstaging and note decay, better defined notes, from the leading edge to the tail, meaning more impactful and tuneful bass, more realistic vocals that have more texture and body. Everything sounds more relaxed and natural with less 'glare' (I'm not going to say analogue, I promise!).
• OCk2 vs OCK1. OCK2 just released this week, no one has it yet as far as I'm aware. Main audible benefit expected to come from lower phase noise spec of <-115db/1hz vs <-110db for OCK-1. -5db @1hz is a significant and normally very pricey difference in the clock world at these low phase noise levels but as both are minimum perf specs allowing for oscillator variation some OCK-1s may be close to OCK2 perf (eg, -112-114db) and may even have reached -115db in the past. See DI-20 thread here for more on this.

Do I need 50 Ohm or 75 Ohm?

 

[Jake2]

Do I need 50 Ohm or 75 Ohm?

50ohm, which is what the R26 clock bnc input is rated as. Then get a decent 50 ohm cable. I can vouch for the Gustard C2 cable.

 

[Odezra]

50ohm, which is what the R26 clock bnc input is rated as. Then get a decent 50 ohm cable. I can vouch for the Gustard C2 cable.

Your experience with the clock/LAN set up is really interesting.

I would of thought the internal clock would always surpass the external clock (assuming signal is clear)?

I am wondering now which would
come out on top - the ock 1 / ock 2 / Gustard c18?

 

[Jake2]

Your experience with the clock/LAN set up is really interesting.

I would of thought the internal clock would always surpass the external clock (assuming signal is clear)?

I am wondering now which would
come out on top - the ock 1 / ock 2 / Gustard c18?

Yes I've heard the theoretical arguments that an internal clock ought to be better. And everything else being equal (phase noise of oscillator, level of noise in clock circuit, quality of power supply, shielding etc) I'm sure an internal clock would be as it cuts out extra connections. Very low phase noise oscillators and associated circuitry aren't cheap and nor would the so would seriously push up the price of dacs.

Anyway like much of this stuff, the proof is in the pudding, it's the best $450 I've spent in hifi.

The $1.5k C18 clock is specced at <-110db/1hz, same as the $450 OCK1, with the $750 OCK2 5db better than both at -115db. Normally to get that level of performance you have to spend well over $2k... so the OCK2 looks like a game changer IF its performance matches its claimed specs.

 

[Odezra]

Yes I've heard the theoretical arguments that an internal clock ought to be better. And everything else being equal (phase noise of oscillator, level of noise in clock circuit, quality of power supply, shielding etc) I'm sure an internal clock would be as it cuts out extra connections. Very low phase noise oscillators and associated circuitry aren't cheap and nor would the so would seriously push up the price of dacs.

Anyway like much of this stuff, the proof is in the pudding, it's the best $450 I've spent in hifi.

The $1.5k C18 clock is specced at <-110db/1hz, same as the $450 OCK1, with the $750 OCK2 5db better than both at -115db. Normally to get that level of performance you have to spend well over $2k... so the OCK2 looks like a game changer IF its performance matches its claimed specs.

That’s helpful thanks.

 

[Super Sonico]

Hello All, I also wrote an email to Gustard to give me a solution for the problem with the high pitch noise (I experience that if the R26 is set to Fast Filter - the noise was the
most annoying and louder than with set to Low or Mid). The file i formerly found in this forum was not complete i think. here are the needed files for update.
it try it today and it works for my unit - the high pitch noise is definetely gone and only a little buzz can be heard if your ear is very close to the Display.

 

[BShaw]

Thank you Super Sonico, I've been trying for a week to make this work, looks like you got a more thorough response from Gustard than I did, will try this tomorrow and report back. Mine is the humming. They're pretending this is a very rare occurence and telling me it's a fault in "those few" systems with the issue

 

[Jake2]

After second guessing my observations to date that the R26 with a good external clock sounds best in my system via its internal streamer fed Roon/HQP rather than via I2S from DDC (I feel a bit like a voice in the wilderness with most folk preferring their DDCs to the internal streamer) I was gratified to stumble across an external review that concluded same using the Gustard c18 clock with a C2 cable.

It’s part of a running review of the R26 from the blog of an Australian audiophile shop guy so take it with a pinch of salt if you will. Though you’d think he’d conclude the opposite - that dedicated steamers and DDCs are superior and essential - if simply moving more boxes was his motivation. His conclusions mirror mine - my bolding for emphasis. Difference is he used a pretty elaborate digital front end/network setup that puts mine to shame, including a network switch with a master clock input he also slaved to the C18. Still that network was probably feeding his streamer and DDC as well and he stated he was using quality cabling/power with everything. I don’t know what streamer and/or DDC he used.

—————————————

“I have recently had a number of customers requesting C2 clock cables and C18 Master clocks; and with the ongoing requests for my opinion on how good the R26 is I decided to find out by putting it to the test:

I run a few experiments in an attempt to extract the absolute most from R26 and find out what its capable of: 'Please note, this is a subjective based test and not measurement based'.

…[SNIP]…

Several ways of connecting the R26 were tested, including I2s from DDC, from dedicated transport, USB direct, Coax and Optical from DDC and from transport and so on. the best result by far! was when using R26 as a roon endpoint via its Lan input fed from the second "Cleannet out" Ethernet port on the Soundaware D2.

- Comparisons were against a: Denafrips Terminator 2, Matrix S-Sabre Pro, SMSL SU10 & Musician Aquarius dacs with similar performance figures and price points.

The result?.. Absolutely astounding..... ------ Stay tuned for detailed results (coming soon) “

————————————————

 

[domiji]

Hello All, I also wrote an email to Gustard to give me a solution for the problem with the high pitch noise (I experience that if the R26 is set to Fast Filter - the noise was the
most annoying and louder than with set to Low or Mid). The file i formerly found in this forum was not complete i think. here are the needed files for update.
it try it today and it works for my unit - the high pitch noise is definetely gone and only a little buzz can be heard if your ear is very close to the Display.

Thanks a lot for your help

I managed to do the update and everything went fine an the high pitch is completely gone

But to the clear… what was that for an update? Was that an update for the dac part of the R26? I only did an update of the Renderer and don’t find anything else on the Gustard website?

 

[OCC7N]

Don't know what your setup is but I can play everything they say it plays via LAN in my home. www.gustard.cn

Tidal Connect = meaning you can just plug a LAN cable in at it will connect to your Tidal profile. Then you can stream directly and use the the remote or app.