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

[MickelJam]

Anybody have a decent LPS to recommend for FMCs? Or one to recommend for powering the R26 itself?

I’ve been using a Topping P50 with good results for the FMC

 

[wbass]

Perhaps I'm combing through the wrong part(s) of the thread, but has there been any gathering consensus for internal OS vs straight NOS on the R26?

Or upsampling via Roon/HQ Player to either DSD or PCM? It seems that upsampling to PCM makes the most sense for this DAC?? I don't play any DSD files, so it would seem strange to take it into that format if there's no particular advantage. Or is there?

I'll certainly do my own experimentation. I ask, however, b/c getting Roon (playing Qobuz) to do higher-rate upsampling will probably require me to to mess with my network quite a bit. And I don't currently have HQPlayer (though certainly have been interested to try it).

Anyway, thanks for any suggestions/guidance!

 

[BShaw]

Anybody have a decent LPS to recommend for FMCs? Or one to recommend for powering the R26 itself?

I have an LHY on the DAC end, and a cheap Jameco Reliapro on the router side.

 

[MickelJam]

Perhaps I'm combing through the wrong part(s) of the thread, but has there been any gathering consensus for internal OS vs straight NOS on the R26?

Or upsampling via Roon/HQ Player to either DSD or PCM? It seems that upsampling to PCM makes the most sense for this DAC?? I don't play any DSD files, so it would seem strange to take it into that format if there's no particular advantage. Or is there?

I'll certainly do my own experimentation. I ask, however, b/c getting Roon (playing Qobuz) to do higher-rate upsampling will probably require me to to mess with my network quite a bit. And I don't currently have HQPlayer (though certainly have been interested to try it).

Anyway, thanks for any suggestions/guidance!

I’ve only been using HQPlayer for only a few days so there a quite a few more knowledgeable people here. I’ve tried both PCM and DSD and tend to prefer PCM on the R26. As far as what filter and what dither I prefer is still a work in progress. I’ve been mostly using poly-sinc-gauss-long or hires-lp and switching between 384k and 768k.

If you download the trial and stick with PCM it doesn’t require much processing power. I stayed away from HQPlayer for a while thinking it would be overly complicated and need some pretty intense processing power, neither of those have to be true.

 

[Jake2]

I found this on another forum. Not sure about the accuracy of this, but seems to partially answer the question we were discussing last night about HQPlayer regarding discounts for HQPlayer 5 if you already owned it and do the discount link on the shop page of the website:

1. 0-90 days - free upgrade
2. 90-180 days - not reported (-30%?)
3. 180- …. days - -15%

Jussi's thoughts on the pricing and discounts which was posted 1 day ago: https://community.roonlabs.com/t/hqplayer-new-version-5-discussion/241958/28

Yep at 187 days I’ve been lumped in with folk who’ve had it 1-5 years since v4’s release in 2018. Not feeling it right now.

 

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

Anybody have a decent LPS to recommend for FMCs? Or one to recommend for powering the R26 itself?

Have also a Topping P50 for myself (assuming your FMC is 5V). Powering them both.

 

[rodthebod]

Anybody have a decent LPS to recommend for FMCs? Or one to recommend for powering the R26 itself?

Look here, there are some interesting conclusions on power supplies https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/31119-power-supply-8-group-test-lps-and-smps/
I find using a battery bank is a good indicator if a LPS or SMPS is effecting the sound, if it sounds better with the battery bank then the LPS or SMPS is not doing it's job.

I have found that the Allo Shanti to be an unbeatable 5v3A+5V1A LPS where there is an instant hit on sound quality for the better even beating a battery supply. The Allo Nirvana SMPS is highly rated too although can't speak from experience. I also us a ZeroZone (Aliexpress) LPS 5-12v+5-12v dual output, that's been good too but they seem to have discontinued the model I bought several years ago. With a LPS as long as decent quality components are used you shouldn't go wrong. iFi power supplies seem to be held in high regard.

 

[Dandoudou]

The Allo Shanti is a great buy for its price.

 

[rodthebod]

The Allo Shanti is a great buy for its price.

I bought the Shanti LPS for use with an Allo USBridge (Sparky SBC) and Rpi 3B+ with DigiOne or Allo Isolator with Kali reclocker, when moving from a battery LiPo4 supply, which was always my go to best sounding solution, the Shanti was considerably better in terms of dynamics. There is more current delivery from the supply I suppose, more detail and is just better overall with the Shanti there's more space around instruments. If you take a look inside the LPS you get the idea that these guys are very serious about filtering, the supply uses super capacitors on the outputs, it's way more sophisticated compared to the regular LPS's being churned out of China.

 

[pwanner]

Perhaps I'm combing through the wrong part(s) of the thread, but has there been any gathering consensus for internal OS vs straight NOS on the R26?

Or upsampling via Roon/HQ Player to either DSD or PCM? It seems that upsampling to PCM makes the most sense for this DAC?? I don't play any DSD files, so it would seem strange to take it into that format if there's no particular advantage. Or is there?

I'll certainly do my own experimentation. I ask, however, b/c getting Roon (playing Qobuz) to do higher-rate upsampling will probably require me to to mess with my network quite a bit. And I don't currently have HQPlayer (though certainly have been interested to try it).

Anyway, thanks for any suggestions/guidance!

I used to own a X26Pro that I used with HQPlayer in DSD and it worked very well. Then I changed for a R26 that worked much better in PCM. In the end I didn't used HQPlayer anymore.

 

[rodthebod]

I used to own a X26Pro that I used with HQPlayer in DSD and it worked very well. Then I changed for a R26 that worked much better in PCM. In the end I didn't used HQPlayer anymore.

Having tried PCM upsampling and DSD into the R26 via either HD content in my library or using HQPlayer Embedded and Desktop, I prefer redbook (44.1/16bit) but I always use NOS=ON on the R26. Having the no oversampling NOS option gives a more realistic believable image IMHO, it's subtle but noticeable. Results can depend on the type of music listened to though.

I have played classical where upsampling to 384 or 768Mhz PCM and DSD128/256 (HQplayer) can produce impressive amounts of extra detail and insight and overall smoothness, but generally if you want to concentrate on the main soloist is playing, redbook is the way, for me anyway. I've used a Philips TDA1541A DAC for years and it's well known that bypassing the resampling IC so a no oversampling NOS mode is implemented makes the presentation much more realistic and believable. Keeping it as simple as possible pays dividends.

 

[pwanner]

Having tried PCM upsampling and DSD into the R26 via either HD content in my library or using HQPlayer Embedded and Desktop, I prefer redbook (44.1/16bit) but I always use NOS=ON on the R26. Having the no oversampling NOS option gives a more realistic believable image IMHO, it's subtle but noticeable. Results can depend on the type of music listened to though.

I have played classical where upsampling to 384 or 768Mhz PCM and DSD128/256 (HQplayer) can produce impressive amounts of extra detail and insight and overall smoothness, but generally if you want to concentrate on the main soloist is playing, redbook is the way, for me anyway. I've used a Philips TDA1541A DAC for years and it's well known that bypassing the resampling IC so a no oversampling NOS mode is implemented makes the presentation much more realistic and believable. Keeping it as simple as possible pays dividends.

I agree that with the NOS mode enabled it sound better, but AFAIK it's not a real NOS mode but just a high pass filter.

 

[rodthebod]

I agree that with the NOS mode enabled it sound better, but AFAIK it's not a real NOS mode but just a high pass filter.

Looking at the Gustard manual it describes the NOS mode as

"Default is OFF. Turn on to bypass the internal interpolating FIR filter. The raw PCM stream is sent into the R-2R ladder directly"

So you can see it is a 'pure' mode where no filter is used the complete audio signal is sent directly to the R2R ladder DAC.
No filter used.

 

[sajunky]

Having tried PCM upsampling and DSD into the R26 via either HD content in my library or using HQPlayer Embedded and Desktop, I prefer redbook (44.1/16bit) but I always use NOS=ON on the R26. Having the no oversampling NOS option gives a more realistic believable image IMHO, it's subtle but noticeable. Results can depend on the type of music listened to though.

I have played classical where upsampling to 384 or 768Mhz PCM and DSD128/256 (HQplayer) can produce impressive amounts of extra detail and insight and overall smoothness, but generally if you want to concentrate on the main soloist is playing, redbook is the way, for me anyway. I've used a Philips TDA1541A DAC for years and it's well known that bypassing the resampling IC so a no oversampling NOS mode is implemented makes the presentation much more realistic and believable. Keeping it as simple as possible pays dividends.

I personally don't disregard high resolution downloads. New hi-res recordings sound great, but for older recordings, I feel that there is a false sense of details in result of oversampling. Timbre and texture is more coherent and natural when listening in original format. A different DAC, but also pure NOS, same impressions.

 

[DeckHiFi]

I personally don't disregard high resolution downloads. New hi-res recordings sound great, but for older recordings, I feel that there is a false sense of details in result of oversampling. Timbre and texture is more coherent and natural when listening in original format. A different DAC, but also pure NOS, same impressions.

That also might depend on the oversampling filter/modulator/shaper used. The 2 filter options in my signature - one of them sounds like a perfect studio upgrade of every song but possibly less natural to what the original sounded like. The 2nd option sounds like how it should sound imo, just a very good version of it. But I get your general points and you might be right. Before I tried HQPlayer, I preferred NOS over the filters on this Dac. NOS is truly magical in its way with no oversampling.