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

[dacwizard]

About 10 years ago, when jitter was an undisputed, real issue in digital audio, I bought a hardware upgrade for my Squeezebox Touch, which included new and better spec'd clocks and whatnot, costing about $500. I sent my Touch away for this procedure, but kept my second, unmodified Touch. When I got the modified Touch back, I played various test tracks, and immediately heard a clear and obvious improvement, particularly in the treble. This should be no surprise, given the better clocks etc. and the known audible difference jitter can introduce. However, just for fun, I plugged my unmodified Touch in next to the modified Touch and shifted between them to the same DAC (Audio-gd Ref 7.1), making it easy to hear any difference. In short, there was no audible difference, and this test was done with electrostatic speakers (see my profile for details), that should be resolving such a difference clearly

Indeed, this is why i suggest people do their own tests if at all possible.
The R26 thread has page after page of people extolling the night and day improvements of the LAN connection over the USB and as for toslink you must be mad. When I did my own tests the toslink was indistinguishable from the LAN (neither myself nor my wife being able to detect difference what so ever). That doesn’t mean in some people’s setups their might be: Network setup and layout, quality of mains, emf environment etc etc all vary and may affect end results.

Expectation bias is difficult to overcome, I am not keen on tests with rapid switching between two sources as they often won’t tell you which you prefer, but they should tell you if there is any difference (not the same thing as which is preferable). I could easily distinguish differences between x26pro and R26, rapid switching showing more bass weight of x26 for example, but only more extended tests told be I find the R26 a more enjoyable listen.

 

[LarsHP]

And just for the record, one of the cables is a Cat8 and the other is Cat6 so right off the bat there are documented differences in measurements and specs.

That is true, but how could these measurements (of data speed) change the sound?

The data arriving to the renderer/DAC will be the same data. Either you get it perfect or not at all. That's my point. Of course, unless something goes completely wrong, and you loose sound for a moment or get awful distortion, which should be very obvious.

 

[Riccardom81]

hi...I understand you switched from x26pro to R26. What made you prefer R26? I have x26pro and I did a comparison of a few days to use the return, with R26. X26pro has a more direct sound and as you say, the bass is more present, more rocky. I'd be tempted to try again....what can you say about it? Thank you

 

[Riccardom81]

Indeed, this is why i suggest people do their own tests if at all possible.
The R26 thread has page after page of people extolling the night and day improvements of the LAN connection over the USB and as for toslink you must be mad. When I did my own tests the toslink was indistinguishable from the LAN (neither myself nor my wife being able to detect difference what so ever). That doesn’t mean in some people’s setups their might be: Network setup and layout, quality of mains, emf environment etc etc all vary and may affect end results.

Expectation bias is difficult to overcome, I am not keen on tests with rapid switching between two sources as they often won’t tell you which you prefer, but they should tell you if there is any difference (not the same thing as which is preferable). I could easily distinguish differences between x26pro and R26, rapid switching showing more bass weight of x26 for example, but only more extended tests told be I find the R26 a more enjoyable listen.

hi...I understand you switched from x26pro to R26. What made you prefer R26? I have x26pro and I did a comparison of a few days to use the return, with R26. X26pro has a more direct sound and as you say, the bass is more present, more rocky. I'd be tempted to try again....what can you say about it? Thank you

 

[ali4ek]

hi...I understand you switched from x26pro to R26. What made you prefer R26? I have x26pro and I did a comparison of a few days to use the return, with R26. X26pro has a more direct sound and as you say, the bass is more present, more rocky. I'd be tempted to try again....what can you say about it? Thank you

Another user here - I kept both, X26 Pro in my main room, R26 in my office.

Observations:
1) Both are great DAC's
2) In a truly blind testing I would likely not be able to tell one from the other (the sound)
3) The non-blind, subjective, expectations+placebo affected impression - X26 Pro is more resolving, faster, more precise. R26 is more relaxed, slightly more pleasant, possibly less fatiguing over longer time. But as I said - may be all of this is in my head - see #2.

One more - both work amazingly with external clocks and Gustard U18 via I2S.

 

[vperez]

Chip dacs have better bass than R26. Try with a life recording or recorded concert dvd/bluray. I found percussions have more decay with R26 and when more than one singer in the stage is easier to pinpoint the differences In the voices.

 

[LarsHP]

Chip dacs have better bass than R26. Try with a life recording or recorded concert dvd/bluray. I found percussions have more decay with R26 and when more than one singer in the stage is easier to pinpoint the differences In the voices.

Which chip DACs are you comparing the R26 to here?

 

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

For those running with cheap FMCs. A nice $10 SFP/SFP+ module upgrade (need ONE, comes in pairs) :

10Gtek SFP+ DAC Twinax Cable, 10G SFP+ to SFP+ Direct Attach Copper Patch Passive Cable

Will be replacing my $82 a piece ($165 total) Finisar modules. More natural sounding IMO.
Its just $10 w/ 30 day return so no problem if you don't like it.

QUICK UPDATE: Suggesting that you ignore the post above and go get the best at just around $38 @ 1M.

Amphenol 10GbE SFP+ Direct Attach Copper Cables (Amphenol SF-SFPP2EPASS)

For EU: LINK For US: LINK

 

[vperez]

Which chip DACs are you comparing the R26 to here?

I have heard topping D90, but also hugo TT2, Holo KTE and Denafrips Terminator. I attended CAF in DC for the past 3 years. Discovered I needed 2 dacs, one for pop-reggae-rock (sabre) and another one for recorded concerts-jazz-acoustic (r2r). Trust your ears, we are all different; and pay attention to what is important for you when listening to music.

 

[LarsHP]

I have heard topping D90, but also hugo TT2, Holo KTE and Denafrips Terminator. I attended CAF in DC for the past 3 years. Discovered I needed 2 dacs, one for pop-reggae-rock (sabre) and another one for recorded concerts-jazz-acoustic (r2r). Trust your ears, we are all different; and pay attention to what is important for you when listening to music.

OK. It's just that my ears and understanding tells me that different chip DACs sound differently, so I wanted to know which you compared the R26 to. My two DAPs are of course chip based, but one has more and better bass in the lowest octave, just to give you an example.

Since I remember reading about the Terminator Plus in the R26 review here, I will quote what he said regarding bass:

"I’m rarely hailing R-2R DACs in here, with just a few exceptions as Rockna Wavelight and Denafrips Terminator Plus, but it seems that R26 tries to be as impactful and hard slamming without costing you an arm and a leg. R26 rocked my world with electronica and rock tunes and I could never had enough of that juicy bass. It easily sustained longer bass notes without dropping their intensity. It was effortless and sometimes over-powerful, it’s certainly one of the biggest highlights of the R26, very much in line with its twin brother X26 PRO."

Also note the last part. He compares the R26 to it's older chip-based brother, X26 Pro. That said, my Audio-gd Reference 7.1 had more low end than the R26 when I compared them side-by-side not long after I got the R26, while the latter having better (midrange) resolution.

 

[vperez]

OK. It's just that my ears and understanding tells me that different chip DACs sound differently, so I wanted to know which you compared the R26 to. My two DAPs are of course chip based, but one has more and better bass in the lowest octave, just to give you an example.

Since I remember reading about the Terminator Plus in the R26 review here, I will quote what he said regarding bass:

"I’m rarely hailing R-2R DACs in here, with just a few exceptions as Rockna Wavelight and Denafrips Terminator Plus, but it seems that R26 tries to be as impactful and hard slamming without costing you an arm and a leg. R26 rocked my world with electronica and rock tunes and I could never had enough of that juicy bass. It easily sustained longer bass notes without dropping their intensity. It was effortless and sometimes over-powerful, it’s certainly one of the biggest highlights of the R26, very much in line with its twin brother X26 PRO."

Also note the last part. He compares the R26 to it's older chip-based brother, X26 Pro. That said, my Audio-gd Reference 7.1 had more low end than the R26 when I compared them side-by-side not long after I got the R26, while the latter having better (midrange) resolution.

I think the key here lays in the “sustained longer bass notes”. R26 bass sounds a lot like music coming from LPs and Sabre bass has no extension (at least to my ears) I have also noticed that after 30 mins of playing music using R26, bass becomes a bit tighter.

 

[gryphon1972]

Have been lurking on this thread for quite some time. Finally managed to read the 616 pages. Thanks all for the information here. Had tweaked my system from:

Source
Eversolo A6 Master. (Router > 10m network cable> A6)

Amplification
Topping A90D
Schiit Aegir

Speaker
Thiel CS1.5

To:

Source
Gustard R26 custom power cable using Roon and Kkbox. (Network box with topping dc power supply > Router > 1m nordost Ali ethernet cable > Dlink Sfp with LHY dc power > finiair aoc 10m > Gustard N18 custom power cable > 1m Nordost Ali cable > Gustard R26 with Ali fuse) Mac mini M2 pro custom power cable as Roon server with some optimisation settings on Roon and Mac mini

Amplification
Audio Research LS2 (Ali Fuse)
Audio Research VT60

Speaker
Thiel CS1.5

The Gustard R26 and N18 plugged into Ali power filter with the audio research amps plugged into the direct unfiltered sockets of the ali power filter

It has been quite a journey of learning as the upgrades and tweaks are done usually 1 at a time. The system from the 2 dimensional, hifi-ish, bright sounding, harsh sounding at higher volume transformed to 3 dimensional, live sounding, detailed and no longer harsh at high volume.

Generally I am happy with the current system and can listen to music for hours. Most of my listening are English, chinese and korean pop vocals. My next upgrade steps that i am looking at is

1. External clock. Looking at LHY ock2s. The latest clock from them with that specify 110db @ 1khz.
2. Gustard N18pro to replace the clean side and connect to the ock2s clock and shift the N18 to the dirty side.

From the post in this thread, it seems that getting an external clock seems to yield little or mixed improvements and return on investment seems low. Was wondering if getting to lhy ock2s is worth the investment and if anyone has tried the new clock from lhy.

How bout the n18pro and with or without the lhy clock?

Thanks,
Jon

 

[AlexBPM]

was about to pull the trigger on the R26 until of my fav YouTubers recently compared it to the Holy Cyan 2 and preferred the Cyan 2 so much he made it his new reference.

 

[Fluty]

Have been lurking on this thread for quite some time. Finally managed to read the 616 pages. Thanks all for the information here. Had tweaked my system from:

Source
Eversolo A6 Master. (Router > 10m network cable> A6)

Amplification
Topping A90D
Schiit Aegir

Speaker
Thiel CS1.5

To:

Source
Gustard R26 custom power cable using Roon and Kkbox. (Network box with topping dc power supply > Router > 1m nordost Ali ethernet cable > Dlink Sfp with LHY dc power > finiair aoc 10m > Gustard N18 custom power cable > 1m Nordost Ali cable > Gustard R26 with Ali fuse) Mac mini M2 pro custom power cable as Roon server with some optimisation settings on Roon and Mac mini

Amplification
Audio Research LS2 (Ali Fuse)
Audio Research VT60

Speaker
Thiel CS1.5

The Gustard R26 and N18 plugged into Ali power filter with the audio research amps plugged into the direct unfiltered sockets of the ali power filter

It has been quite a journey of learning as the upgrades and tweaks are done usually 1 at a time. The system from the 2 dimensional, hifi-ish, bright sounding, harsh sounding at higher volume transformed to 3 dimensional, live sounding, detailed and no longer harsh at high volume.

Generally I am happy with the current system and can listen to music for hours. Most of my listening are English, chinese and korean pop vocals. My next upgrade steps that i am looking at is

1. External clock. Looking at LHY ock2s. The latest clock from them with that specify 110db @ 1khz.
2. Gustard N18pro to replace the clean side and connect to the ock2s clock and shift the N18 to the dirty side.

From the post in this thread, it seems that getting an external clock seems to yield little or mixed improvements and return on investment seems low. Was wondering if getting to lhy ock2s is worth the investment and if anyone has tried the new clock from lhy.

How bout the n18pro and with or without the lhy clock?

Thanks,
Jon

A really good ext clock is the Leo Bodnar gps clock, works really well with R26 and used / favoured by many on this thread.

 

[gryphon1972]

A really good ext clock is the Leo Bodnar gps clock, works really well with R26 and used / favoured by many on this thread.

Thanks for the recommendation Fluty. I did read in this thread about the clock. It seems that this clock need some setups using a computer and that it needs to syn with Gps. Is it difficult to optimize this clock?