[Forgisound]

At the HiFi rack, I have an incoming ethernet cable from the router, then Roon PC, then NAS and R26. It is connected to an Ethernet switch.

If I want to connect the R26 via an optical cable, what devices do I need? So, some switch that has wired and optical connections and optical fiber converters for connecting R26 and a good optical cable.

Please recommend.

 

[Forgisound]

After 7-8 hours of operation, it is quite clear that the R26 works better with an external clock, in my case the LHY OCK-1

I don't understand why Gustard didn't install such a clock, when already went to great lengths to make a very good sounding DAC?
The oscillator incorporated by LHY is not much more expensive, compared to the price of the DAC.

And the difference in sound is not small. With an external clock it sounds like twice the price of a DAC.

Is there any reasonable technical explanation for incorporating the oscillator used by Gustard?

 

[fullbass]

With an external clock it sounds like twice the price of a DAC

I think that such conclusions should be made when listening to the device for at least one month. And the first impressions are usually based on emotions, and in a week you can change your mind.

The sound may just be different, but that doesn't mean it's twice as good.

 

[Forgisound]

Yes, that is a tentative conclusion. The clock hasn't even burned in yet. Also, the conversion of sound differences into a monetary amount cannot be objective.

But the difference in sound is very clear. And exactly in the direction of how high end devices sound.

 

[Jake2]

Yes, that is a tentative conclusion. The clock hasn't even burned in yet. Also, the conversion of sound differences into a monetary amount cannot be objective.

But the difference in sound is very clear. And exactly in the direction of how high end devices sound.

+1 & I'm very happy for you. I had the same initial reaction when I hooked up the OCK-1 to the R26 - essentially wow/holy crap. It took an already most excellent sounding DAC straight to superb.

It'll get better with time too, so the theory goes, days, weeks for a high precision OXCO to fully stabilise.

What clock cable are you using?

As to why Gustard don't include in the R26 an OXCO of that standard along with its own dedicated linear power supply, filtering etc to guarantee exactly the same quality... because they just can't. Not without massively bumping the price well beyond USD2k, probably 2.5k. You gotta keep in mind that their best attempt at a -110db/1hz phase noise clock is their USD1.6k C18 external clock. LHY is being a massive disrupter in the master clock market, bringing as good or better performance at <1/3rd the price. If others, including Gustard, were capable of doing this before now you can be damn sure they would have.

I just consider myself damn lucky to be getting back into separates at the exact time the R26 and LHY clocks hit the market, both setting new standards.

 

[migo]

Is using Roon the only way to get stuttering less playback with R26? I've played local 192k PCM files and got stuttering once too.

 

[Forgisound]

+1 & I'm very happy for you. I had the same initial reaction when I hooked up the OCK-1 to the R26 - essentially wow/holy crap. It took an already most excellent sounding DAC straight to superb.

It'll get better with time too, so the theory goes, days, weeks for a high precision OXCO to fully stabilise.

What clock cable are you using?

As to why Gustard don't include in the R26 an OXCO of that standard along with its own dedicated linear power supply, filtering etc to guarantee exactly the same quality... because they just can't. Not without massively bumping the price well beyond USD2k, probably 2.5k. You gotta keep in mind that their best attempt at a -110db/1hz phase noise clock is their USD1.6k C18 external clock. LHY is being a massive disrupter in the master clock market, bringing as good or better performance at <1/3rd the price. If others, including Gustard, were capable of doing this before now you can be damn sure they would have.

I just consider myself damn lucky to be getting back into separates at the exact time the R26 and LHY clocks hit the market, both setting new standards.

I have a cable made of high purity silver wires, without a shield. The impedance is unknown. I ordered a quality RG400 cable. Silver-plated copper, Teflon, double screen.

 

[Jake2]

I have a cable made of high purity silver wires, without a shield. The impedance is unknown. I ordered a quality RG400 cable. Silver-plated copper, Teflon, double screen.

Is that result you describe using square wave or sine or both? I’ve moved to sine as it sounds better for me. Theoretically sine is more forgiving of impedance mismatches, reflections but more sensitive to external RF noise so shielding more important. According to that paper posted a couple of times on this thread anyway. Anecdotally there does seem to me to be a correlation starting to emerge between silver cable users and more satisfied OCK owners. I’ve not tried a silver cable yet.

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

@Forgisound
I listed my Fiber Optic media converter setup few pages back...
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/gus...ve-decoding-music-bridge.963630/post-17279910

Total cost around 75Eur (media converter + optic cable, excluding LPS)

 

[Forgisound]

Is that result you describe using square wave or sine or both? I’ve moved to sine as it sounds better for me. Theoretically sine is more forgiving of impedance mismatches, reflections but more sensitive to external RF noise so shielding more important. According to that paper posted a couple of times on this thread anyway. Anecdotally there does seem to me to be a correlation starting to emerge between silver cable users and more satisfied OCK owners. I’ve not tried a silver cable yet.

Better is sine wave here, with this cable.

 

[Nada]

Any thoughts on this as an alternative to the fiber optic boxes?

From what I can tell you want a .25m LAN cable going into Gustard meaning the two fiber optic boxes and linear psu will all be visible / in reach which is an issue for me as my dac is v visibly located and can’t move.

Am wondering whether this isolator will achieve the same outcome technically? I like the surge protection feature which the fiber optic solution offers and the relative discreetness of this to the fiber optic solution

https://emosystems.de/en/shop/emosafe-network-isolators/self-enclosed/en-1005/

A transformer is bandwidth limited, meaning noise will be attenuated out of the signal band. However noise riding in the same freq as the signal will pass straight through.

Optical on the other hand will cut most noise until the final output stage.

In the ideal world where the final optical stage is excellent, optical will outperform a transformer.

In the real world, that's not certain. To know what's best with your network you would need to get both and put on a blindfold while someone swaps.

In terms of the optical setup the optic cable can be very long with impunity so thats one box that can be sited remotely.

 

[BShaw]

Looks a lot like the Delock some of us have at 7 times the cost? @Odezra I have one if you’d like to try it out, pm me.

 

[Dandoudou]

I received my R26, and it is burning in non-stop for three days.
Already out of the box, the first impressions were very good. Its sound was darker and more dynamic than Pegasus.
I tried it in these two ways:

1/
Fiber > EtherRegen (OCK-1 10 mHz) > Cat.7 > Allo USBridge Sig (GentooPlayer, Diretta Target) > USB > iFi iGalvanic 3 > USB > DI-20HE (OCK-1 10 mHz) > I2S > R26
In this setup, the R26 plays only PCM, and can not play DSD, either with Roon or Audirvana.

2/
I tried the LAN input, and I was surprised how good the sound was:

Fiber > EtherRegen (OCK-1 10 mHz) > Cat.7 > R26 (OCK-1 10 mHz)
In this setup, I could play both DSD and PCM. The sound was so good that I'll do a serious A/B comparisons with the previous setup, once the DAC is burned in.
But after an hour or two, repeated stuttering appeared. Roon identified the firmware as v1.3.1.

 

[Dandoudou]

Looks a lot like the Delock some of us have at 7 times the cost? @Odezra I have one if you’d like to try it out, pm me.

JCAT also sells a galvanic isolator very similar to the DeLock for some €170.

 

[Jake2]

I received my R26, and it is burning in non-stop for three days.
Already out of the box, the first impressions were very good. Its sound was darker and more dynamic than Pegasus.
I tried it in these two ways:

1/
Fiber > EtherRegen (OCK-1 10 mHz) > Cat.7 > Allo USBridge Sig (GentooPlayer, Diretta Target) > USB > iFi iGalvanic 3 > USB > DI-20HE (OCK-1 10 mHz) > I2S > R26
In this setup, the R26 plays only PCM, and can not play DSD, either with Roon or Audirvana.

2/
I tried the LAN input, and I was surprised how good the sound was:

Fiber > EtherRegen (OCK-1 10 mHz) > Cat.7 > R26 (OCK-1 10 mHz)
In this setup, I could play both DSD and PCM. The sound was so good that I'll do a serious A/B comparisons with the previous setup, once the DAC is burned in.
But after an hour or two, repeated stuttering appeared. Roon identified the firmware as v1.3.1.

Great stuff re your first impressions, well apart from the stuttering you describe. I stream Roon + HQP DSD512 and/or PCM768 for days on end with Gustarender v1.3 with no issue, not sure what the cause is sorry.

The internal streamer produces a remarkably good sound doesn't it, especially when externally clocked by the OCK-1.

Appreciate it's early days but the fact you feel it sounds so good it warrants a proper comparison reference point of an externally clocked DI-20HE chain is high praise. (The DI-20HE being well accepted as a clear step up from the U18 I have)

On the topic of the DI20... interesting to hear your R26 is 'stuck' on PCM. It's xactly what I would have expected given the DI20 sending no signal on I2S pin 15. But it's the opposite of what @comzee found with his DI20 and what @JackJohnson316 found when modding an I2S cable and tested with pin 15 disconnected - for both their R26's were stuck on DSD. Go figure