[Deleeh]

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.

No is wrong.
There are two versions of the manual and what is written in the second one is wrong.
Nos off is with the conductor Nos on is with the fir filter.

Unless Gustardvhatves corrected it again, which I don't believe.
I think someone corrected it on the first page.

 

[mikeypas]

No is wrong.
There are two versions of the manual and what is written in the second one is wrong.
Nos off is with the conductor Nos on is with the fir filter.

Unless Gustardvhatves corrected it again, which I don't believe.
I think someone corrected it on the first page.

This is directly from Gustard support via email a couple of days ago:

When NOS=on, the internal digital filtering and oversampling will be bypassed.
When DSD=on, DSD does not need to be converted to PCM for decoding.

 

[sajunky]

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.

I refered to my PGGB samples testing. The best results with noise shaping turned off. In HQPlayer no matter what filter settings, noise shaping is still there. With my aversion to noise shaping, HQPlayer is not on my list.

 

[MickelJam]

Yesterday I updated the R26 firmware to CT m2.1 and the renderer to 1.42. Fairly easy process used VMware on my Mac for the firmware and Belencia Etcher in MacOS. All was good, working just fine. A couple of hours latter when I was done listening I left the R26 powered on as I usually do.

When I sat down this afternoon to listen HQPlayer wasn’t recognizing the R26, yesterday it showed the new version 1.42. Checked in Roon also wasn’t recognizing the R26. Checked my FMC and the clean end wasn’t showing a connection but the dirty end seemed fine. Plugged the FMC into my iPad and it fired right up. I then ran some Ethernet to the R26 instead of the FMC, no luck. Restarted just about everything, network, computers, components, still nothing.

I figured I’ll have to reflash the renderer, but now Balencia Etcher isn’t finding the R26. I tried in both Mac and Windows. On windows it did ask me if I want to connect but I never got the Ignore/Eject pop up and nothing in BE.

Well let’s try redoing the firmware. So, I ran through that again in Windows and it worked fine. The Gustard program recognized the R26 and as far as I can tell I have a fresh install of CT m2.1. Didn’t do anything for the Lan. Balencia Etcher still can’t find the card in the R26.

I did quickly try Bluetooth to make sure the DAC is still functioning and that worked. I’m not even sure it’s the firmware/renderer fw. It was working fine yesterday. Should I open it up and take the card out and flash it that way? Should I revert to 1.4 if I do that?

 

[MickelJam]

Now it‘s showing “EXT ERR”. Haven‘t seen that before.

Edit: Fixed the EXT ERR, guess I had the external clock turned on. Still no Lan

 

[rodthebod]

This is directly from Gustard support via email a couple of days ago:

When NOS=on, the internal digital filtering and oversampling will be bypassed.
When DSD=on, DSD does not need to be converted to PCM for decoding.

I think common sense dictates to anyone that when No Over Sampling (NOS) is set to on, means no over sampling is on........ meaning the signal is untouched before it goes to the ladder DAC.

 

[rodthebod]

Yesterday I updated the R26 firmware to CT m2.1 and the renderer to 1.42. Fairly easy process used VMware on my Mac for the firmware and Belencia Etcher in MacOS. All was good, working just fine. A couple of hours latter when I was done listening I left the R26 powered on as I usually do.

When I sat down this afternoon to listen HQPlayer wasn’t recognizing the R26, yesterday it showed the new version 1.42. Checked in Roon also wasn’t recognizing the R26. Checked my FMC and the clean end wasn’t showing a connection but the dirty end seemed fine. Plugged the FMC into my iPad and it fired right up. I then ran some Ethernet to the R26 instead of the FMC, no luck. Restarted just about everything, network, computers, components, still nothing.

I figured I’ll have to reflash the renderer, but now Balencia Etcher isn’t finding the R26. I tried in both Mac and Windows. On windows it did ask me if I want to connect but I never got the Ignore/Eject pop up and nothing in BE.

Well let’s try redoing the firmware. So, I ran through that again in Windows and it worked fine. The Gustard program recognized the R26 and as far as I can tell I have a fresh install of CT m2.1. Didn’t do anything for the Lan. Balencia Etcher still can’t find the card in the R26.

I did quickly try Bluetooth to make sure the DAC is still functioning and that worked. I’m not even sure it’s the firmware/renderer fw. It was working fine yesterday. Should I open it up and take the card out and flash it that way? Should I revert to 1.4 if I do that?

This is what I was getting a problem with on first trying to flash to the SDcard for the streamer firmware months ago. I was using VMware on my MacBook too.

The way around it is to do what you suggest and take out the SDcard and flash v1.42 via a micro SDcard reader attached to your Mac using Belena Etcher. This has always worked for me no issues with the renderer not being seen. The new firmware is shown with a new Gmediarenderer logo from the controller with firmware v1.42 (at least when using Jplay) It's worth pursuing as I've found v1.42 to be much better for red book, PCM and NOS listening.

It's a simple task to take the lid off, just remember it's the front facing countersunk Allen bolts to remove when looking at the pairs of bolts holding the lid on from the base side, and one top centre countersunk bolt on the rear panel. It's a good idea to loosen both top bolts at either end as the tolerances for the casework are very tight and the angle bracket can get trapped when trying to lever off the lid from the rear. Loosening the top bolts gives enough room to be able to pull the lid upwards to remove. The front edge of the lid is trapped using a lip that goes under a rebate at the top edge of the front fascia. All good stuff as far as structural integrity goes. Once the lid is off, use your fingernail to gently press downwards against the stainless steel cage holding the SDcard in place, it should slide downwards and then drop/rotate down on a hinge, and the SDcard will be free to be pulled out.

 

[sajunky]

I think common sense dictates to anyone that when No Over Sampling (NOS) is set to on, means no over sampling is on........ meaning the signal is untouched before it goes to the ladder DAC.

Common sense, agreed. It means no oversampling and no additional processing. With increased popularity term NOS is being commercially abused. There are holes in a definition, by example Denafrips has replaced sample&hold decoding method with linear interpolation with sampling rate pushed to the maximum speed supported by a ladder. And called it NOS. Others call something like "NOS filter" which is also fake. People are starting to be aware of such manipulation. Fortunately there is no abuse in the case of Gustard.

 

[MickelJam]

This is what I was getting a problem with on first trying to flash to the SDcard for the streamer firmware months ago. I was using VMware on my MacBook too.

The way around it is to do what you suggest and take out the SDcard and flash v1.42 via a micro SDcard reader attached to your Mac using Belena Etcher. This has always worked for me no issues with the renderer not being seen. The new firmware is shown with a new Gmediarenderer logo from the controller with firmware v1.42 (at least when using Jplay) It's worth pursuing as I've found v1.42 to be much better for red book, PCM and NOS listening.

It's a simple task to take the lid off, just remember it's the front facing countersunk Allen bolts to remove when looking at the pairs of bolts holding the lid on from the base side, and one top centre countersunk bolt on the rear panel. It's a good idea to loosen both top bolts at either end as the tolerances for the casework are very tight and the angle bracket can get trapped when trying to lever off the lid from the rear. Loosening the top bolts gives enough room to be able to pull the lid upwards to remove. The front edge of the lid is trapped using a lip that goes under a rebate at the top edge of the front fascia. All good stuff as far as structural integrity goes. Once the lid is off, use your fingernail to gently press downwards against the stainless steel cage holding the SDcard in place, it should slide downwards and then drop/rotate down on a hinge, and the SDcard will be free to be pulled out.

Thanks for your advice. I also contacted Gustard, they suggested more or less the same. Recommending purchasing a new SD card.

I went back and found your post from September seems like we have different card holder/slots. Pushing down doesn’t seem to do it.

Edit: On my version (newer I suspect) the card pulls out the top. No hinged holder, but it is very tight. Requires some force and my wive’s smaller fingers.

I am incredibly impressed with Gustards email response time. I emailed them last night (eastern USA) they got back to me in a few hours. Emailed them again about how to remove the card responded in under 5 minutes.

 

[rodthebod]

Thanks for your advice. I also contacted Gustard, they suggested more or less the same. Recommending purchasing a new SD card.

I went back and found your post from September seems like we have different card holder/slots. Pushing down doesn’t seem to do it.

Edit: On my version (newer I suspect) the card pulls out the top. No hinged holder, but it is very tight. Requires some force and my wives smaller fingers.

I am incredibly impressed with Gustards email response time. I emailed them last night (eastern USA) they got back to me in a few hours. Emailed them again about how to remove the card responded in under 5 minutes.

Hi, I think you are correct the cage mechanism is not the same one, interesting, looking at your picture compared to the one attached. But if pulling it out from the top works for you that's all good. Try reflashing before purchasing a new SDcard, they are a generous 32GB.

 

[MickelJam]

Back up and running! I did have buy a new SD card, the one in the R26 somehow became damaged. Couldn’t be found by BalenaEtcher while in the DAC or in a card reader. Quick flash of v1.42 and everything is good again.

 

[Dandoudou]

There are some new modulators and new filters in HQPlayer 5 that are much better than the old ones, and make the upgrade worthy.
Jussi did a great job.

 

[rodthebod]

There are some new modulators and new filters in HQPlayer 5 that are much better than the old ones, and make the upgrade worthy.
Jussi did a great job.

Can you be more specific about which modulators and filters are particularly effective?

 

[Dandoudou]

There are plenty of options, and I tried only a few of them.

For the modulators:
ASDM7EC-light (perfect for DSD512 with the M1 Mini) is excellent.
ASDM7EC-super (the Mini can do only DSD256 with it) is also very good.
ASDM7ECv3 (the Mini can do only DSD256 with it) seems the best up to now on my system.
I tried these modulators with the old filters 1x Poly-sinc-gauss-long and Nx Poly-sinc-gauss-long-hires-lp

For the new filters, I tried with PCM:
Sinc-MGa, Sinc-MG, Poly-sinc-gauss-halfband…

 

[Fluty]

I've done the v1.42 upgrade, apparently successfully as with previous upgrades that I've done. However, the R26 tells me that it is now running v1.3. I'm confused, as it's still showing the settings from previous v1.4 upgrade (larger text, no flashing light etc). How can I check if the 1.42 update has installed, should it now show v1.42, or is v 1.3 correct??
Confused.....