[Ichos]

Unlikely to void the warranty. The USB-C exposes SD card so no need to open up. I am still waiting for linux-chenxing team to fix SDIO support so I can finally use modern, clean kernel. Gustard provided kernel is bad. I can't understand why Gustard put such a bad and non-GPL respecting SoC in $1650 hardware.

It's good to have members with the knowledge to do such tweaks.

 

[migo]

I think the warranty covers tinkering with the software, too. But I wait for your result as I'd like LMS on it.

It is not hard to backup original content of SD card and write it back if something fails... I think it is necessary first step while doing such a experiments...

 

[565321]

It is not hard to backup original content of SD card and write it back if something fails... I think it is necessary first step while doing such a experiments...

Of course

 

[migo]

Finally! Waiting for DAC to get to room temperature, package was frozen by outside temperatures during transport.

 

[OCC7N]

@JackJohnson316 knows all about Pin 15.
Look up his posts. And someone here (maybe Jack) contacted Tubulus about making a custom I2S that solved this issue.

But why did they make it like that?

Using Gustard DDC: I wont have to short any pin right?

Or DI20HE?

 

[Loose-Leaf]

Finally! Waiting for DAC to get to room temperature, package was frozen by outside temperatures during transport.

waiting is a big part of this hobby though Gustard seem to fulfill orders fast , I see you have the mighty Susvaras what are you using to drive them with if you don’t mind me asking ? For me the 23-R Edluem is really spectacular doing a fabulous job of waking the Susvaras up , a very good match amplifier too transducer however the 23-R is expensive the Holo Audio Bliss headphone amplifier has finally hit the market for 1000s less though what I use now to drive my Susvaras is no slouch it is paramount using well matched amplification with the Susvaras .

My R-26 has settled in very nicely into my headphone system I have no regrets selling a much more expensive dac I don’t feel nothing much is missing.
Cheers

 

[Jake2]

But why did they make it like that?

Using Gustard DDC: I wont have to short any pin right?

Or DI20HE?

I looked into this quite closely a few months back as was keen on DI-20HE, given its stellar reputation. No issues with the U18 DDC, works perfectly with stock pin setting as you’d expect. SU6 works fine too, but no external clock option. Alas the DI20 sends no signal at all from pin 15, and there is no way to change this in its firmware/settings. So Gustard interprets Pin 15 no signal (0 volts) as ‘0’ setting = PCM. No issue if you only want to ever play PCM, but if you play DSD content via the DI20 the R26 still thinks it’s getting PCM and it will play distorted. From memory someone contacted Kingwa at Audio-Gd to ask if he’d consider modifying the DI20 firmware to have a selectable on / off signal for Pin 15 rather than nothing, But I don’t think he committed to anything.

The solution of shorting Pin 15 an earlier poster shared was I believe to solve the reverse problem - the DDC sending a fixed ‘on’ signal = 5v = fixed DSD. No good if you mainly play PCM. As I understand it shorting the Pin at DDC source in that case reduced the voltage sent pin 15 to fixed 0v = fixed PCM signal to R26. But no way of playing DSD with that cable.

EDIT - @comzee who has both DI20 and R26 advises that as no signal is sent from DI20 PIN 15, R26 is stuck on DSD, not PCM (see his post below). My conclusion re being stuck on PCM was based on theoretical discussion of in DI20 thread a few months ago before anyone had R26.

 

[migo]

waiting is a big part of this hobby though Gustard seem to fulfill orders fast , I see you have the mighty Susvaras what are you using to drive them with if you don’t mind me asking ? For me the 23-R Edluem is really spectacular doing a fabulous job of waking the Susvaras up , a very good match amplifier too transducer however the 23-R is expensive the Holo Audio Bliss headphone amplifier has finally hit the market for 1000s less though what I use now to drive my Susvaras is no slouch it is paramount using well matched amplification with the Susvaras .

My R-26 has settled in very nicely into my headphone system I have no regrets selling a much more expensive dac I don’t feel nothing much is missing.
Cheers

I'm using CFA3 amp to drive Susvara and it is/was really great sounding with X26Pro.

 

[OCC7N]

I looked into this quite closely a few months back as was keen on DI-20HE, given its stellar reputation. No issues with the U18 DDC, works perfectly with stock pin setting as you’d expect. SU6 works fine too, but no external clock option. Alas the DI20 sends no signal at all from pin 15, and there is no way to change this in its firmware/settings. So Gustard interprets Pin 15 no signal (0 volts) as ‘0’ setting = PCM. No issue if you only want to ever play PCM, but if you play DSD content via the DI20 the R26 still thinks it’s getting PCM and it will play distorted. From memory someone contacted Kingwa at Audio-Gd to ask if he’d consider modifying the DI20 firmware to have a selectable on / off signal for Pin 15 rather than nothing, But I don’t think he committed to anything.

The solution of shorting Pin 15 an earlier poster shared was I believe to solve the reverse problem - the DDC sending a fixed ‘on’ signal = 5v = fixed DSD. No good if you mainly play PCM. As I understand it shorting the Pin at DDC source in that case reduced the voltage sent pin 15 to fixed 0v = fixed PCM signal to R26. But no way of playing DSD with that cable.

Ok sound good because I am only using flac files. I have never tried DSD.

Now that I look I can se the di20 shows a NC, which means a 0= not connected PCM.

Thats cool. Thanks

But my matrix spdif 2 is a little more interesting. It has names for the pin 15(IIC SCL) and 16(IIC SDA)

I convince myself that Pin 15 on Matrix is intelligent enough to know the difference between DSD/PCM

But pin 16 I have absolutely no idea

 

[Loose-Leaf]

I'm using CFA3 amp to drive Susvara and it is/was really great sounding with X26Pro.

Sorry I missed that it’s very late I once had Gilmours friend Bigir in Iceland amplifier , it will be interesting to check out the Holo Audio Bliss they used the Susvaras to voice this amplifier with .

 

[comzee]

If you read a few pages back (page 7?), there was a discussion that DI-20HE doesn't work with R26. Suggesting to go w/ own Gustard's DDC-U18 and Clock C18 for compatibility.

I got my DI-20HE back from loaner.

Can confirm I2S does not work in any configuration between DI-20HE and R26.
Also, I've mentioned this much earlier in the thread, but as a reminder neither did my Hydra-Z I2S work with R26.

They both worked with X26. I know Gustard changed the I2S configuration on the R26, but they had to of changed more than just how the pins are.
It has something to do with one of the NC lines (NC = no connect).

Basically, the R26 is stuck on DSD mode in any configuration settings with DI-20HE or Hydra-Z (and yes both those DDC have configuration for I2S).
So again it's not just a simple config issue, R26 has something funky going on with it.

Of course their U18 (also pictured) works perfect with R26 using I2S. But I find the built in ethernet on R26 is better than U18+I2S, so it's meaningless.

Kinda dumb, but whatever.

I just ordered a Holo RED DDC today, but I won't get it for 5-6 weeks. I'll update this thread then, on if Holo Red I2S works with R26.

EDIT:

Alas the DI20 sends no signal at all from pin 15, and there is no way to change this in its firmware/settings. So Gustard interprets Pin 15 no signal (0 volts) as ‘0’ setting = PCM. No issue if you only want to ever play PCM, but if you play DSD content via the DI20 the R26 still thinks it’s getting PCM and it will play distorted.

Huh, I didn't read this before I posted. This is interesting, is this your direct experience, or did you read this somewhere else?
And if you did read it somewhere else, can you link me that original source?

I'm having quite the opposite issue. DI-20HE is stuck on DSD, not PCM.
If it was stuck on PCM that would be amazing, because I only play PCM music, and I have no DSD, or any desire to ever play DSD.

Bummer for me.

EDIT2:

Upon further reading in this thread, Jake2 was mistaken on the flip. According to @JackJohnson316 it being stuck on DSD is normal.
Pins 15 and 17 need to be shorted for proper PCM flag.

Well, I'll be monitoring this thread for any manufacturers making customer I2S cables to fix this.

 

[mgsu]

Singser SU-6 works just fine with the Gustard on IIS. Also the noise when switching from DSD to MQA is not evident via IIS. SQ is also better with Singser than over Ethernet. For reference: my ethernet switch is SOtM sNH-10G & sCLK-EX with Hypsos power supply

 

[Jake2]

I got my DI-20HE back from loaner.

Can confirm I2S does not work in any configuration between DI-20HE and R26.
Also, I've mentioned this much earlier in the thread, but as a reminder neither did my Hydra-Z I2S work with R26.

They both worked with X26. I know Gustard changed the I2S configuration on the R26, but they had to of changed more than just how the pins are.
It has something to do with one of the NC lines (NC = no connect).

Basically, the R26 is stuck on DSD mode in any configuration settings with DI-20HE or Hydra-Z (and yes both those DDC have configuration for I2S).
So again it's not just a simple config issue, R26 has something funky going on with it.

Of course their U18 (also pictured) works perfect with R26 using I2S. But I find the built in ethernet on R26 is better than U18+I2S, so it's meaningless.

Kinda dumb, but whatever.

I just ordered a Holo RED DDC today, but I won't get it for 5-6 weeks. I'll update this thread then, on if Holo Red I2S works with R26.

EDIT:



Huh, I didn't read this before I posted. This is interesting, is this your direct experience, or did you read this somewhere else?
And if you did read it somewhere else, can you link me that original source?

I'm having quite the opposite issue. DI-20HE is stuck on DSD, not PCM.
If it was stuck on PCM that would be amazing, because I only play PCM music, and I have no DSD, or any desire to ever play DSD.

Bummer for me.

Sorry it's what I'd concluded from reading DI20 thread about consequences of no signal from pin 15 from others who were considered R26. Including a comment IIRC re PCM should be ok. But as I think you're the only person I know who has both I will defer of course to your actual experience.

Will amend my post too to show it is stuck on DSD not PCM.

 

[camrector]

Quick question for you guys. I have been playing around with native OS vs upsampling via HQ and Roon (both PCM and DSD).

Can someone explain how the 1 bit DSD Dac architecture works? Am I right in assuming that

- if DSD files are sent to the DAC with DSD NOS turned on - the 1 bit DAC handles the entire digital to analogue conversion without processing via the R2R ladder?

So I believe that NOS doesn’t have anything to do with DSD. That would be handled by the “Direct” on/off. Direct would go right to the 1bit and not the clock.
Does the ladder come into play at all with DSD?

My question is if I have “Native” selected in ROON for DSD playback and “Direct” turned off on the R26 what’s going on?

 

[comzee]

Singser SU-6 works just fine with the Gustard on IIS. Also the noise when switching from DSD to MQA is not evident via IIS. SQ is also better with Singser than over Ethernet. For reference: my ethernet switch is SOtM sNH-10G & sCLK-EX with Hypsos power supply

Don't want to start a debate here, just want to chime in with my own experiences.
My DDC rankings are (I directly own all of these, and have extensively ABX'd them).

DI-20HE > Hydra-Z+ZPM > U18 > SU6 > Lynx AES16e (tied with Pi2AES) > Eitr > (I've owned these in the past, DI-2014/DI-U8/F1)

The R26 ethernet for me is better than U18 I2S, which stated above, I already think is better than SU6.
I'm surprised by your results, but I wan't argue them, I just want to give my own data point.

The sound signature of SU6 to me (compared to my other DDC) is darker, thicker, a touch of haze.
I've also loaned out the SU6 and had people tell me they thought the same.

I will also say all ethernet testing is with Roon, using their own (and IME best in the market) RAAT network protocol. Which again, ime, is better than UPNP or airplay.