[easylive]

Hi guys, I have on question, I feed my R26 through wifi-client (tp-link) and short ethernet cable, do you think, that better power supply for that tp-link will be better than the supplied standart 5v/2a generic charger? are some benefits possible with that upgrade? I must say, that now Im very very happy with SQ, but it can be probably always better...?

 

[ohcrapgorillas]

You can use USB out of Pi 4 for higher sampling rate but make sure LPS is used to power it as you are bypassing Pi2AES HAT

I think just 4X oversampling to 176.4/192 kHz sounds fantastic in NOS mode over AES: I'm getting some of that NOS flavor but none of the softness or roll-off I described. Separation and imaging are improved, fine detail is more apparent, instruments sound organic and natural and textured with a great sense of space.

You're right that I should be using a LPS if I'm doing oversampling at all. I'm trying to find a Shanti LPS but Allo is gone and used units are rare. I might have to go with a pair of Chinese LPS from ebay, but trying to decide which of them are any good is difficult.

You need to be on NOS mode with HQplayer.
Otherwise you are still using the oversampling filters of the R26 undoing what HQplayer does.
The R26 LAN can play all of the high sample rates that the PiAes can’t.

Yes, as I mentioned, I am running the R26 in NOS mode with HQPlayer.
The LAN can play those sampling rates, but the streamer can't run HQPlayer. I'd need HQPlayer Embedded to run on my media server and do the oversampling with its GPU. I considered going this route, but I decided to run HQP directly on the Pi4 because, without oversampling, the Pi2AES sounds better than the LAN streamer. Besides, 4X oversampling seems like maybe it's a good middle ground for some of that NOS goodness while avoiding the softness and roll-off.

I still might experiment with HQPlayer Embedded to see if oversampling to 705.4/768 kHz is too much of a good thing or if the NOS sound is still there, but I'm pretty happy with what I'm hearing for now. Before I do anything with HQP Embedded, I need to decide on a OS filter in HQPlayer. So far, sinc-M and closed-form-M are my favorites.

 

[DeckHiFi]

I think just 4X oversampling to 176.4/192 kHz sounds fantastic in NOS mode over AES: I'm getting some of that NOS flavor but none of the softness or roll-off I described. Separation and imaging are improved, fine detail is more apparent, instruments sound organic and natural and textured with a great sense of space.

You're right that I should be using a LPS if I'm doing oversampling at all. I'm trying to find a Shanti LPS but Allo is gone and used units are rare. I might have to go with a pair of Chinese LPS from ebay, but trying to decide which of them are any good is difficult.


Yes, as I mentioned, I am running the R26 in NOS mode with HQPlayer.
The LAN can play those sampling rates, but the streamer can't run HQPlayer. I'd need HQPlayer Embedded to run on my media server and do the oversampling with its GPU. I considered going this route, but I decided to run HQP directly on the Pi4 because, without oversampling, the Pi2AES sounds better than the LAN streamer. Besides, 4X oversampling seems like maybe it's a good middle ground for some of that NOS goodness while avoiding the softness and roll-off.

I still might experiment with HQPlayer Embedded to see if oversampling to 705.4/768 kHz is too much of a good thing or if the NOS sound is still there, but I'm pretty happy with what I'm hearing for now. Before I do anything with HQP Embedded, I need to decide on a OS filter in HQPlayer. So far, sinc-M and closed-form-M are my favorites.

Very nice. I went through a lot of HQPlayer settings in past. Have you tried simply NOS (no upsampling) with PCM 44.1 and adding -3dB headroom/global gain in your software EQ? I do that just in case this Dac plays nicer with the headroom. Maybe it's placebo, but I've been loving straight NOS with this simple EQ change. Low gain on my amp, turned up a decent amount. Sounds so natural, great soundstage. I keep thinking maybe I'll notice treble rolloff or something wrong with the sound. Of course a lot of music is in the midrange, but to me I'm not thinking about things missing. Maybe it's the relaxing/analogue nature of it. But a big fan at the moment.

 

[camrector]

I think just 4X oversampling to 176.4/192 kHz sounds fantastic in NOS mode over AES: I'm getting some of that NOS flavor but none of the softness or roll-off I described. Separation and imaging are improved, fine detail is more apparent, instruments sound organic and natural and textured with a great sense of space.

You're right that I should be using a LPS if I'm doing oversampling at all. I'm trying to find a Shanti LPS but Allo is gone and used units are rare. I might have to go with a pair of Chinese LPS from ebay, but trying to decide which of them are any good is difficult.


Yes, as I mentioned, I am running the R26 in NOS mode with HQPlayer.
The LAN can play those sampling rates, but the streamer can't run HQPlayer. I'd need HQPlayer Embedded to run on my media server and do the oversampling with its GPU. I considered going this route, but I decided to run HQP directly on the Pi4 because, without oversampling, the Pi2AES sounds better than the LAN streamer. Besides, 4X oversampling seems like maybe it's a good middle ground for some of that NOS goodness while avoiding the softness and roll-off.

I still might experiment with HQPlayer Embedded to see if oversampling to 705.4/768 kHz is too much of a good thing or if the NOS sound is still there, but I'm pretty happy with what I'm hearing for now. Before I do anything with HQP Embedded, I need to decide on a OS filter in HQPlayer. So far, sinc-M and closed-form-M are my favorites.

The best implementation is Hqplayer desktop running on your cpu and connected to Roon.
You aren’t going to have enough processing power to upsample higher rates and use some of the better filters.
Youre really under utilizing Hqplayer not getting the best out of it with your set up.

 

[BShaw]

I know this is OT a bit, but here's a teaser for the new and coming Gustard N18/Pro switch, for those of us who use fiber converters:
https://www.gustard.cn/?post_type=products&page_id=17677

 

[Stellabagpuss]

Figured out at least one issue. Had NOS on, as that had sounded better to me before getting the external clock. With NOS off, I can tell a clear difference between internal vs external clock for the R26. For the U18, I'm not sure I can tell if it's making a major difference. Not sure if anyone else has experience with benefit of an external clock for the R26 vs U18 vs R26+U18.

Now my interest is piqued into BNC cables to best optimize an external clock. If I could DIY, I would love to explore the TFLEX 405. If I'm buying outright though, it seems that shortest cable possible is preferred. However when looking at any of the "higher end" cables like the Harmonic Tech BNC cables, the shortest length I could find to purchase was 1 meter, which seems quite long. I've been able to get by with a 1 ft/0.3 m cable so far, but could probably even get it even shorter down to 0.5 ft if needed.

Any recommendations on shortest available BNC cables? Thanks all for the help so far!

Sorry for delay, missed your post.
lf you can 0.5m of TFLEX 405, however l run 0.9m, and TBH can't hear any difference,and l've tried both lengths. l don't subscribe to putting the LB inside the R26, due to close proximity of both units components.
Of course, l strongly recommend you change the extental BNC connector that runs to the board, you can purchase a pre made TFLEX 405 one. PM if you need details.

 

[dacwizard]

Hello, sorry for strange question but, is it possible that I damaged my gustard r26? I have very limited electricity knowledge.

I accidentally running it with no ground connected for 2 days. I don't find anything wrong after immediately except that now I don't find any difference between NOS on and off. Weird that first time I bought this, there was a noticeable difference, the song played would pause briefly and continue with rather different characteristic but now there's not even a pause when I switched it mid play. Changing pcm filter still make difference and toggling NOS on will basically just continue using the last selected pcm filter.

My memory could be wrong. There might have no difference between settings from the start or my brain just making stuff up. The sound is still great. Just wondering if I will just stuck in NOS off and missing out the organic sound forever..

As stated previously you will not have damaged your r26.

Be careful on making too many decisions about what works best for the R26 in the first few days of ownership. There are significant changes (for the better in certain areas) over the first couple of weeks of ownership from new. In my case I loved the midrange and soundstage right from the start but the bass definition/precision and to a less degree weight were all lacking compared to my reference CD and Vinyl sources (all using OS mode). In fact I bought a second hand x26pro to replace it as I didn’t think I could live with the bass issues. The x26 solved the bass issues (excellent bass performance in all respects), but I missed the R26 midrange. After a week with the X26 I switched back to the R26 (having had it powered and looping tracks silently 24/7), imagine my delight to hear the bass was now much much improved, great definition, still not quite the weight of the x26 (or CD and Vinyl) but massively improved. Another week or two switching back and forth convinced me that the R26 was now much preferable overall, the bass now just being a hairs breath behind the references. So in your case the NOS/ OS switching may stabilise over a few weeks.

I myself wasn’t keen on NOS mode but then I dont use any external filters just a PcM stream from a streamer.

 

[pbarata]

Edited

OK, so managed to install usb drivers in vmware, installed chx341ser_driver, then installed ct_221115
1) I don't know if this is significant, but the COM3 SERIAL-USB CH341 that I was supposed to see, instead shows COM3 SERIAL-USB CH340
2) Still get clicking sounds
3) I had set PCM NOS ON and DSD Direct ON - clicking noises when switching bitrates, from pcm to dsd etc..
If I set PCM NOS OFF and DSD direct OFF - seems there are no clicking noises when switching
4) After installing CT_221115, I lost the M2.1 display changes. If I reinstall the M2.1 , will that remove the ct_221115 clicking noise fix?

I'm using Audirvana to play my music without upsampling. Should I just upsample everything to DSD64 to avoid the clicking noises? That would solve the issue for everything other than switching between DSD64/128/256 etc
When I first got my R26 I seemed to have preferred pcm nos on and dsd direct on. But now the clicking sounds seem to be bothering me more.
what exactly do those settings do?

Did you tried in step 4 to reinstall again the M2.1? Did it override the clicking noise fix?

 

[mikeypas]

Did you tried in step 4 to reinstall again the M2.1? Did it override the clicking noise fix?

I never really understood this fix for the clicking noises, it was my understanding that pcm runs through one relay and dsd another. That’s what’s producing the clicking sounds, and that is normal when switching back and forth between pcm and dsd (as per Gustard).
Is this supposed to remove those noises completely? If so, then the r26 is still using 2 different relays?

 

[ray12345]

This is what I am afraid of. The actual sound quality sounds like an improvement but it sounds like a nightmare in other ways. This looks like another good option at the 500 price point.

https://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Audio-MXN10-Network-Player/dp/B0BVWJCL5M/ref=sr_1_4?crid=33C3SJYXXLE0J&keywords=cambridge+streamer&qid=1702768453&sprefix=cambridge+streamer,aps,233&sr=8-4&ufe=app_do:amzn1.fos.ac2169a1-b668-44b9-8bd0-5ec63b24bcb5

For me, R26 does have stuttering issue using BubbleuPnP, connecting to external streamers will usually get rid of stuttering problem.

I have been using a number of streaming methods, and has compared comprehensively iFi Zen Stream with internal uPnP and other streaming methods, let me elaborate below :

1) For iFi Zen Stream - different power supply makes quite a lot of difference. I use iFi iPower Elite for most of my comparison, as it sounds most balanced that way. With my external LPS, the Zen Stream sounds with bigger sound stage compared to iPower Elite, but the vocals are not as solid. A lot of people takes the vocal solidity of the Zen Stream with iPower Elite as a big plus, however, the soundstage width and depth is still quite limited with iPower Elite. The solidity of the vocals may lead a lot of people into thinking the Zen Stream is good, if one don't care about soundstage size and air and midrange transparency.

2) For R26 internal uPnP - the midrange transparency and the soundstage beats the Zen Stream. However, vocals sound less focused. If one only listens to male and female vocals, no classical music or live jazz, then one could easily prefer the Zen Stream over R26 as the Zen Stream's vocals are rock solid steady in imaging. But once you play classical or other music demanding soundstage and air, you will note the lack of that using Zen Stream compared to R26 internal uPnP.

3) For best results, I use U18+clock+R26, streaming using USB from computer. This is best of both worlds, the vocals may still be not as steady as Zen Stream, but one will note the details of singer's voice being much more detailed. One can hear the breathing and the techniques of the singer much better than Zen Stream or R26 uPnP. Soundstage and air is also best this way. The cons of course is the cost, not just the clock, U18 and PC cost, but also the cost of the USB, I2S and clock cables, as each component affects the sound a lot. Tuning of the PC is also important, as that also affects a lot the sound of the overall system.

 

[shogo33]

For me, R26 does have stuttering issue using BubbleuPnP, connecting to external streamers will usually get rid of stuttering problem.

I have been using a number of streaming methods, and has compared comprehensively iFi Zen Stream with internal uPnP and other streaming methods, let me elaborate below :

1) For iFi Zen Stream - different power supply makes quite a lot of difference. I use iFi iPower Elite for most of my comparison, as it sounds most balanced that way. With my external LPS, the Zen Stream sounds with bigger sound stage compared to iPower Elite, but the vocals are not as solid. A lot of people takes the vocal solidity of the Zen Stream with iPower Elite as a big plus, however, the soundstage width and depth is still quite limited with iPower Elite. The solidity of the vocals may lead a lot of people into thinking the Zen Stream is good, if one don't care about soundstage size and air and midrange transparency.

Interesting observation on the ZS powered by the Elite. I too found the same impressions, alike the Ipower X, the Elite was a step up but somewhat lacking in the depth and space of the soundstage. I was comparing these two with the Topping P50 and the Topping did not have the same weight and solidity to the sound like the iFi's but made it up with more air and space around the vocals and soundstage. I managed to find a bit of a middle ground compromise, i used an ifi Ground Defender after the ZS usb out and connected it to a spare 5v out from the P50 and somehow managed to get more meat to the vocals, without it impacting the soundstage width,depth but also removing some of that haziness to the sound, which i think comes from the ZS's output.

With this in play with my ZS, i find its easier to discern differences from HQPlayers filters, where mine is on close-form-m and s with LNS15 for the moment.

 

[ray12345]

Interesting observation on the ZS powered by the Elite. I too found the same impressions, alike the Ipower X, the Elite was a step up but somewhat lacking in the depth and space of the soundstage. I was comparing these two with the Topping P50 and the Topping did not have the same weight and solidity to the sound like the iFi's but made it up with more air and space around the vocals and soundstage. I managed to find a bit of a middle ground compromise, i used an ifi Ground Defender after the ZS usb out and connected it to a spare 5v out from the P50 and somehow managed to get more meat to the vocals, without it impacting the soundstage width,depth but also removing some of that haziness to the sound, which i think comes from the ZS's output.

With this in play with my ZS, i find its easier to discern differences from HQPlayers filters, where mine is on close-form-m and s with LNS15 for the moment.

Since you are trying the Ground Defender, you may as well try the AQ Jitterbug. Personally I like the Jitterbug more and am using it now, it increases soundstage size, give a bit more 'meat' to vocals AND also provide some beautiful tone and harmonics to musical instruments, which I found other similar accessories can't.

 

[Thetaburn]

For me, R26 does have stuttering issue using BubbleuPnP, connecting to external streamers will usually get rid of stuttering problem.

I have been using a number of streaming methods, and has compared comprehensively iFi Zen Stream with internal uPnP and other streaming methods, let me elaborate below :

1) For iFi Zen Stream - different power supply makes quite a lot of difference. I use iFi iPower Elite for most of my comparison, as it sounds most balanced that way. With my external LPS, the Zen Stream sounds with bigger sound stage compared to iPower Elite, but the vocals are not as solid. A lot of people takes the vocal solidity of the Zen Stream with iPower Elite as a big plus, however, the soundstage width and depth is still quite limited with iPower Elite. The solidity of the vocals may lead a lot of people into thinking the Zen Stream is good, if one don't care about soundstage size and air and midrange transparency.

2) For R26 internal uPnP - the midrange transparency and the soundstage beats the Zen Stream. However, vocals sound less focused. If one only listens to male and female vocals, no classical music or live jazz, then one could easily prefer the Zen Stream over R26 as the Zen Stream's vocals are rock solid steady in imaging. But once you play classical or other music demanding soundstage and air, you will note the lack of that using Zen Stream compared to R26 internal uPnP.

3) For best results, I use U18+clock+R26, streaming using USB from computer. This is best of both worlds, the vocals may still be not as steady as Zen Stream, but one will note the details of singer's voice being much more detailed. One can hear the breathing and the techniques of the singer much better than Zen Stream or R26 uPnP. Soundstage and air is also best this way. The cons of course is the cost, not just the clock, U18 and PC cost, but also the cost of the USB, I2S and clock cables, as each component affects the sound a lot. Tuning of the PC is also important, as that also affects a lot the sound of the overall system.

Have you tried using the IFI streamer's USB output into the U18 then to the clock and DAC - headphone/speaker?
Then control the IFI using Neutron or USB Audio Pro player on an Andriod phone. Completely bypassing a potentially noisy PC.

I am using Mode 5 on the IFI stream, which is superior sounding to mode 1 / all-in-one mode.

 

[Jake2]

Have you tried using the IFI streamer's USB output into the U18 then to the clock and DAC - headphone/speaker?
Then control the IFI using Neutron or USB Audio Pro player on an Andriod phone. Completely bypassing a potentially noisy PC.

I am using Mode 5 on the IFI stream, which is superior sounding to mode 1 / all-in-one mode.

I tried this with the Roon & HQP dedicated settings on the iFi Zen Stream back when I first got the R26 over a year ago: MAC Mini (Roon + HQP) > ethernet switch > Zen Stream (iFi Power X) > USB > U18 > I2S > R26. I did a LOT of ABing. Incl without and without external clocks. Preferred the R26's LAN internal HQP NAA renderer... but what I found was it is all so cable and power supply dependent that I could easily imagine the U18 & Zen Stream sound being elevated by even higher quality power supplies/cables and digital interconnects than I was using (BJC FE I2S, Gothic Audio Outsider USB)..

My system and tweaks employed have moved on quite a lot since then... I need to experiment again with both.

 

[pbarata]

Did you tried in step 4 to reinstall again the M2.1? Did it override the clicking noise fix?

I understood the fix is to remove the clicking sound (rele switch) from PCM do DSD. But I did not tried yet, as I've installed the display firmware M2.1 and I'm afraid that it removes the clicking fix.