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

[Dandion]

Tidal connect is a built-in App with Bubbleupnp. The R26 would pull all its songs from the web while the cell phone would just control it like Spotify connect. From my point of view, the r26 with upnp is a great deal and reliable!

 

[rodthebod]

sounds like interesting project +1 for this request, would be great if you could share more details @NoaHimesaka

Well guys this is just a reassurance post to say that my R26, when delivered a week or so ago had an issue with connecting to LAN, i.e it wasn't recognised by my router and it didn't show up as a renderer in Bubbleupnp or Airplay on an iPhone or iPad to share music, as I wanted to upgrade the firmware to the latest, to enable the full LAN functionality. Chicken and Egg.

Audiophonics, my supplier, came back to me pretty quickly, to try to fix the problem as I couldn't see the R26 on the network to upgrade the firmware to get the uPnP functionality, ie. play directly to the R26 via LAN, this was definitely broken. Whilst waiting for Audiophonics to come back to me I eventually through frustration did take the bull by the horns and extract the SDcard out of the R26 to upgrade it manually.

Nothing else was working, so..... as I am familiar with Raspberry Pi OS's, since they came out is showing my age, and flashing stuff etc I proceeded,

(BUT..... you may be probably best to wait for a supplier to give guidance if you are a novice) it's not worth the stress if you haven't done this sort of thing.........

(BUT..... if you have..... you have to use a finger nail to push down the stainless steel shield to get the card out - I have pics and description if you want to see as its a little bit tricky)

After extraction I then reflashed the SDcard manually with an SDcard reader on my laptop (MacBook Pro M1) using BalenaEtcher (my favourite flasher for Raspberry Pi SDcard Operating systems)

This did the trick and after reboot everything now worked via LAN, the Gustard R26 was now seen on the network via my router with an IP address and then all importantly.....
Using Bubbleupnp on Android the Gustarender 1.21 was there to use for the renderer and also on AppleShare with Amazon Music on an iPhone or iPad.

The conclusion I made to this mess of no LAN working on arrival, the image on the installed SDcard from the factory that runs the Android OS must have been corrupt, but after manually extracting the card and reflashing, this was corrected and now everything works as intended. There was no sign of the R26 on the network prior to refreshing the image.... if this has happened to you manually refreshing the SDcard seems to solve the problem.

I should add, after using the product, that this Gustrad R26 is an exceptional piece of equipment it sounded amazing using the USB input direct from an Android Samsung S7 FE tablet using Amazon Music Unlimited this was working out of the box. But when used with LAN connection, after the reflash of the card, from router (Cat7 cables) direct to the Gustard R26 and using control software such as Bubbleupnp (Android) or Mconnect (Apple iPhone or iPad) via Airplay at 16/44.1 the results are just great... it doesn't do the product justice saying great.... (try using both Mconnect and Bubbleupnp, the sound is slightly different, though I can't comment until I have listened more, Mconnect seemed more 'together' on first listen..... so I just have....

I will endeavour to do a review to try to explain the excellence of this DAC. I have yet to try the R26 in my main listening room system downstairs, but having now just only heard it on my everyday family friendly system it is just great, it extracts things that I have not heard before
(and still at just a week and bit run-in now) Can't wait to try it in my listening room.... but only once properly run in.

I was going to rabble on about what I've done with other DAC chips (TDA1541A) with separate PSU's but I think that's for another forum.

BUT I have to say that the Gustard R26 is at another level completely to anything I have tried............. utterly another level.

After many years, no, decades of searching for a better DAC the R26 is it.... and I haven't tried it in my main system yet...........

Watch this space.....

 

[milkdudd]

For those of us who are not ready to upgrade their dac in the near future, I assume Gustard will ship them from the factory with the latest firmware at some point. Seem reasonable?

 

[Alcophone]

Tidal connect is a built-in App with Bubbleupnp. The R26 would pull all its songs from the web while the cell phone would just control it like Spotify connect. From my point of view, the r26 with upnp is a great deal and reliable!

I'm not familiar enough to be sure, but you're either saying that BubbleUPNP implements Tidal Connect, which would mean that you can use the Tidal app to tell BubbleUPNP what to pull from Tidal and send to the R26 over the network or you're confusing the ability to use Tidal in BubbleUPNP with Tidal Connect, which is a specific standard. Either way if UPNP is involved you need two devices with good connection to each other, one is the R26 and the other is de facto a streamer, in its most fundamental sense.

If Tidal Connect was working directly on the R26 it would have full control over the timing because it pulls the audio data at its own convenience rather than the data getting pushed to it.
That doesn't mean it sounds better, there's probably plenty of buffering involved with UPNP as well, and so as long as you send the bits perfectly to the R26 over UPNP it might sound the same. It's just more that needs to work perfectly to not have issues than if Tidal Connect was running on the R26.

 

[BShaw]

I've been reading along the last few pages, and trying to understand some of the information new to me. Maybe someone can give me a bit of guidance......
I'm about to order the R26+U18, and would love to be able to stream Tidal through the R26 directly (right now I use a ZenStream with Tidal Connect into my BF2 via USB).
Since I'm a Mac/iPad user, it looks like I would have to 1. Connect my router to the R26 via ethernet cable (currently use wifi). 2. Install mConnect to the iPad. So then, I would access the Tidal app by opening mConnect, eh? Is this a smooth operation? Can I access radio stations too through mConnect? This is all brand new to me, sorry for the silly questions.
The only issue I have here is that it would require a 30' ethernet cable, which I'm not sure is a great idea and I don't want to spend 10k on another cable!

 

[NoaHimesaka]

Haha, did you copy iFi's implementation over to the R26? Sneaky! Exciting times.

Yep. There's lots of tutorials to copy ifi's implementation for RPi. I just adapted it to suit R26. Tutorial coming soon!

 

[mantraone]

I've been reading along the last few pages, and trying to understand some of the information new to me. Maybe someone can give me a bit of guidance......
I'm about to order the R26+U18, and would love to be able to stream Tidal through the R26 directly (right now I use a ZenStream with Tidal Connect into my BF2 via USB).
Since I'm a Mac/iPad user, it looks like I would have to 1. Connect my router to the R26 via ethernet cable (currently use wifi). 2. Install mConnect to the iPad. So then, I would access the Tidal app by opening mConnect, eh? Is this a smooth operation? Can I access radio stations too through mConnect? This is all brand new to me, sorry for the silly questions.
The only issue I have here is that it would require a 30' ethernet cable, which I'm not sure is a great idea and I don't want to spend 10k on another cable!

In theory in terms of sound quality you can use the U18 via USB from Zenstream and via I2s to R26 could be better than ethernet cable directly on R26.

 

[NoaHimesaka]

If you want TIDAL Connect on your Gustard R26, here's the guide! https://gist.github.com/NoaHimesaka1873/8ef2396d5296765c37170e54c4ab1745
WARNING: Linux knowledge required. Witchcraft will be performed by following this guide. Seriously, read that before continuing.

 

[BShaw]

In theory in terms of sound quality you can use the U18 via USB from Zenstream and via I2s to R26 could be better than ethernet cable directly on R26.

Thank you. Not doubting what you say is true, I’m just not sure why SQ would be better. Is it mostly because the U18 with i2s is so good? Or maybe the streamer implementation in the R26 is a bit of a compromise?

 

[Nada]

I’m just not sure why SQ would be better.

Yep. SQ with I2S might be might be better, indistinguishable or worse then direct ethernet. Different systems could reveal all options. All depending on the local set up and conditions. If the local network is super noisy maybe I2S will sound better. But if the USB feeding the U18 is noisy maybe the lan will be better.

Worth trying all the input options if all the gear is on the rack anyway. Including TOSLINK. TOSLINK with its total isolation might be the best .

If you want TIDAL Connect on your Gustard R26, here's the guide! https://gist.github.com/NoaHimesaka1873/8ef2396d5296765c37170e54c4ab1745

Thats very generous. Thanks for sharing

 

[mantraone]

Thank you. Not doubting what you say is true, I’m just not sure why SQ would be better. Is it mostly because the U18 with i2s is so good? Or maybe the streamer implementation in the R26 is a bit of a compromise?

In my experience ethernet connection for audio streamer have a difference performance relate to home network and electrics connection.

The DDC Gustard U18 make a very good job to isolate the last segment of data transmission to the DAC. This is why important DAC producer as MSB and Auralic suggest to use wi-fi connection in order to degrade Sound Quality due to similar issues and no easy to fix for a normal users.

 

[BShaw]

In my experience ethernet connection for audio streamer have a difference performance relate to home network and electrics connection.

The DDC Gustard U18 make a very good job to isolate the last segment of data transmission to the DAC. This is why important DAC producer as MSB and Auralic suggest to use wi-fi connection in order to degrade Sound Quality due to similar issues and no easy to fix for a normal users.

Do you mean “in order not to degrade sound quality”? If I’m understanding what you said, it’s preferable to stream wifi to my zenstream and route through the u18?

 

[Nada]

The great thing about the R26 is it has ethernet in:
- etherent is galvanically isolated by protocol
- no expensive cables are needed
- no DDC is needed
- no streaming device is needed

Maybe minor differences between digital inputs really don't matter more then simplicity.

 

[mantraone]

Do you mean “in order not to degrade sound quality”? If I’m understanding what you said, it’s preferable to stream wifi to my zenstream and route through the u18?

Each system can sound different, but in general let my suggest to try in this way and then decide.
If is true that R26 can perform at the best also via ethernet plug and cable could be great. It the moment I see a smart solution via TIDAL connect and UPnP with mobile app in this 3D, but if you like use wire like me...

 

[mantraone]

The great thing about the R26 is it has ethernet in:
- etherent is galvanically isolated by protocol
- no expensive cables are needed
- no DDC is needed
- no streaming device is needed

Maybe minor differences between digital inputs really don't matter more then simplicity.

This is true, but the Gustard U18 DDC have a particular chip dedicate to reduce the jitter created by galvanic isolation, and this is audible from U16 is a good step.

I hope to make this test soon in my system....