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

[camrector]

Hi Duffer,
How did you make the screen work with roon?
Is there a possibility to attach the screen via hdmi directly to a roon core or do you have to put a raspberry pi in between?

I can respond too. Mine is attached directly to my Roon core (MBP)via HDMI. Then it’s just a simple screen share.

 

[camrector]

Also I wanted to extend this to anyone interested in using Roon/HQ/Jriver and wanted to try out the DSP/Room correction Convolution filters capabilities.
I use a very powerful, professional program called Focus Fidelity to calibrate loudspeakers and room acoustics in both the frequency and time domain.
Send me your speaker measurements and I’ll design a filter for you.
All you need to get is a UMIK 1 or 2 (which you can returned after) and take some measurements using the free program Focus Fidelity Impala.

I cannot express how much this can improve your system.
Just PM me if you are interested.

 

[mgsu]

I can respond too. Mine is attached directly to my Roon core (MBP)via HDMI. Then it’s just a simple screen share.

Thanks Cam,
Roon Rock standalone unfortunately does not allow for a HDMI out into a TV besides a web browser windows display.
Maybe we have to wait for a future update.

 

[rockcity007]

Also I wanted to extend this to anyone interested in using Roon/HQ/Jriver and wanted to try out the DSP/Room correction Convolution filters capabilities.
I use a very powerful, professional program called Focus Fidelity to calibrate loudspeakers and room acoustics in both the frequency and time domain.
Send me your speaker measurements and I’ll design a filter for you.
All you need to get is a UMIK 1 or 2 (which you can returned after) and take some measurements using the free program Focus Fidelity Impala.

I cannot express how much this can improve your system.
Just PM me if you are interested.

Wow, what a kind offer Cam! I'm finding all this a bit to technical though, maybe when I retire and have time to figure it all out

 

[camrector]

Wow, what a kind offer Cam! I'm finding all this a bit to technical though, maybe when I retire and have time to figure it all out

No worries and Thanks
The tech stuff is all on my end.
The measurement process is super simple and would take no more than 30 minutes.
You would email me those, and then I send you a zip file that you load into your player.
That’s it. Sit back and listen to your system that has been corrected to your room as well as time aligned.

 

[duffer5]

Hi Duffer,
How did you make the screen work with roon?
Is there a possibility to attach the screen via hdmi directly to a roon core or do you have to put a raspberry pi in between?

The monitor is connected via HDMI to the Hifi Rose 150b streamer. The Rose simply is outputting the visuals that are normally on the front display. When I am in this mode I typically turn-on the VU-meters vs having the front display having the duplicative album info. https://eng.hifirose.com/RS150-RS150B

 

[cobrabucket]

 

[labeelen]

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[rockcity007]

He says "if you're an analogue enthusiast and think digital music sounds artificial and you listen to a lot of jazz, vocal centric and acoustic music, this DAC isn't going to change your opinion, you should be trying out a Denafrips. It excels with rock, pop and electronic music"

Well, I like jazz, vocals and acoustic music.

What are your opinions on this?

 

[camrector]

He says "if you're an analogue enthusiast and think digital music sounds artificial and you listen to a lot of jazz, vocal centric and acoustic music, this DAC isn't going to change your opinion, you should be trying out a Denafrips. It excels with rock, pop and electronic music"

Well, I like jazz, vocals and acoustic music.

What are your opinions on this?

Yeah I didn’t understand that either.
That’s all I really listen to on my home system. I found the R26 better than the Venus2 I was auditioning.

Another thing that kills me is none of these reviewers have touched the streamer/Lan connection.
It’s crazy!!

 

[winged creature]

He says "if you're an analogue enthusiast and think digital music sounds artificial and you listen to a lot of jazz, vocal centric and acoustic music, this DAC isn't going to change your opinion, you should be trying out a Denafrips. It excels with rock, pop and electronic music"

Well, I like jazz, vocals and acoustic music.

What are your opinions on this?

I compared this DAC to a Pontus 2. The only thing the Pontus 2 did better was vocal textures. R26 was superior to everything else in my system.

 

[rockcity007]

Yeah I didn’t understand that either.
That’s all I really listen to on my home system. I found the R26 better than the Venus2 I was auditioning.

Another thing that kills me is none of these reviewers have touched the streamer/Lan connection.
It’s crazy!!

"Another thing that kills me is none of these reviewers have touched the streamer/Lan connection.
It’s crazy!!"

Ya, go figure?

 

[winged creature]

Another thing that kills me is none of these reviewers have touched the streamer/Lan connection.
It’s crazy!!

Seriously! The streamer is so good I sold my Zen Stream and used that money to buy a pair or Maggie LRS

 

[duffer5]

@cobrabucket, Thanks for posting. Good review.

My two key takeaways: Paraphrasing here

1. Holo Spring 3 "might be bested in sound quality by the R26." Wow and glad I went with the R26 over the Holo Spring I was eyeing but did not want to wait 2 months to get (patience is not my virtue).

2. “Jazz is not the music of choice for this DAC." What? I think Jazz and the like shine on the R26 not sure where that comment came from.

I continue to be amazed that Gustard has built such a novel DAC into a quality product with a decent price point. I have reached out to Holo when I was researching my purchase and asked if they could share what was on the horizon and they stated," Spring 3 and May are here for the long haul and we hope to bring a successor to the Cyan but for the update it won't be like the original as it is too expensive to create a R2R ladder DAC at the below $2000 price point." (https://www.kitsunehifi.com/product/holo-audio-cyan/).

My final thoughts are that Gustard must have been working on the r26 prior and during the Covid shutdown of China and as a result of working on the R26 prior to shutdown had plenty of inventory to build the R26 at a reasonable retail cost. I would suspect that if Gustard was to start over again the cost would be at least 25% more than what the retail is today just to recovery some margin.

Lastly gents, I think in this crazy world of audio we got a downright bargain and the quality of the gear didn't suffer. High quality at a reasonable price, what more can you ask for.

Just my 2cents.

 

[Deleeh]

Most of the reviews were not that important to me.
The only one I liked was the one by Tharbamar where a song plays at the end and the video with the R2R challenge.
What I found really unfortunate was that no one tested the streamer.
That's just part of it, most likely they were just too lazy because it didn't have a Wlna.
Otherwise they would have done it for sure.

I have played almost all the music so far and there is nothing where I would say the R26 performs worse.
R&B,Rock,Pop,Hip Hop,Amy Winnhouse stuff were all good overall.
The only thing I would say is that the usb input is good but not the best.
The veil clearly lifts with the DDC via I2S.
With the Lan port itself, purely as a Lan I would say it's okay, but with the FMC boxes it reaches I2S level.
At least that was my impression.
I2S vs Fmc Lan, I2S is still a touch warmer and more open with a bit more sparkle on top.
Here it might be DDC that matters which one you buy.
I am currently satisfied with the Su2.
And also overall how it sounds more than I probably wanted.
With a tube amp, there's certainly a lot more in it in combination than with SS amps.
With the Feliks Euforia amplifier, but also with the Denon 800ne, I have to say that both are very good.