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

[Deleeh]

Then also my follow up question is would it be worth it to get something like a holo red / bluesound nano / ever solo? I have the LHY Ock2 clock which I find makes a nice difference vs the Gustard internal now, but all these streamers seem to not accept clock input for syncing. Have you all found any benefit other than sample rates to taking the streaming section outside of the Gustard? Anyone love a particular streamer?

Exactly via Alsa and then you have to activate the button in the first picture in Muse under Sample conversion so that you can set the sample rate.
If this is deactivated, you will get the normal output where it is defined.

When Tidal was still streaming MQA, I found it passable, but not outstanding.
It was refreshing to hear the sound in a different way, but it annoyed me so much that I deactivated it.
Since Tidal has switched back to Flac, I think it has improved a bit in terms of sound, not much but still subtly perceptible.

With the Holo Red you could theoretically go in via BNC to the Gustard, you then have to activate the ext clock in the Gustard menu.
I don't think the Holo Red is wrong as a streamer and could be better than a PC.

Alternatively there is something like this here but that is more if you would use a HQ player:https://quartzacoustic.com/shop/int...cm1536-installed-in-linux-ubuntu-plug-n-play/

This one doesn't seem to be wrong either, it's supposed to be better than a Pi based device, but it can only be used via USB, not via a clock or other output options like Bnc Spidf ect:
https://quartzacoustic.com/shop/int...bridge-installed-in-linux-ubuntu-plug-n-play/

 

[Fluty]

Selling my Silver Gustard R26 - I've upgraded to SACD, so unable to use it. Asking AUS$1200 & can post (my cost) to anywhere in Australia. Unit is absolutely as new, perfect condition, original packaging etc.

 

[gryphon1972]

Reporting back on the Leo Bodnar clock that arrived yesterday. Connected to R26 with the Harmonic Tech bnc cables and powered by LHY dc.

The sound with the clock gain a little more body. Soundstage expanded quite a fair bit. The height,the width, with depth being most significant about 1m or more depending on the recording. Every instrument had more space, more details on the soundscape could be heard from every instrument or voice. The instruments had more decay and were more expressive without overlapping or being dissected from each other. I felt closer to the music. The background darker. Level of transparency improve as if a thin veil has been lifted.
Most impressive to me was i can hear even the bass ie kicks has more decay.
Musicality was up a few notches.

 

[Stellabagpuss]

Do you have a picture showing how it's done? Not sure if that would impact transformer performance or not, but it will certainly block of interference.

Some where on this thread... which is big, Jake2 posted some photos, so you could have to search back through the thread
From my own experience and others,it has a positive effect, lower noise floor, better dynamics and certainly improved the lower end. Mu Metal is used exactly for this task, they surround a transformer, you will never stop magnetic waves, but you can reduce,redirect and encase.

Of course this means taking your R26 apart, it's mainly arts and crafts, cutting and placement.

 

[vvume]

To the bold R26 modders out there, does anyone have any experience dealing with the AC Inlet on the R26? I am hoping to upgrade the AC inlet to IeGO AC-1 Ag-Rh, but it seems that there is no easy way to dismantle the existing inlet and switch without desoldering it from the board? Any experiences in dismantling this section is appreciated.

 

[Deleeh]

To the bold R26 modders out there, does anyone have any experience dealing with the AC Inlet on the R26? I am hoping to upgrade the AC inlet to IeGO AC-1 Ag-Rh, but it seems that there is no easy way to dismantle the existing inlet and switch without desoldering it from the board? Any experiences in dismantling this section is appreciated.

I don't think it will be that easy with the board, because you need a ‘better’ one with the same pin assignment.
The only thing you can do is to install your IeGO AC-1 Ag-Rh and connect it with a cable from the inlet to the board.
And I doubt whether this is really an ‘upgrade’.

Looks like Gustard went the direct route here as it was done.

 

[vvume]

The only thing you can do is to install your IeGO AC-1 Ag-Rh and connect it with a cable from the inlet to the board.

This is pretty much what I ended up doing for the same inlet replacement on my Shiit Freya+ and Peachtree Gan400 primary as a more refined top end. R26 is posing to be bigger challenge to even removing the inlet in the first place.

The IeGO did incrementally improve the sound of system in the preamp and amp and it was noticeable. Hence the inclination to get this on the DAC as well that had pretty much all other upgrades done to it.

 

[vvume]

To the bold R26 modders out there, does anyone have any experience dealing with the AC Inlet on the R26? I am hoping to upgrade the AC inlet to IeGO AC-1 Ag-Rh, but it seems that there is no easy way to dismantle the existing inlet and switch without desoldering it from the board? Any experiences in dismantling this section is appreciated.

Surgery completed - looks butt ugly and I threw the warranty out of the window (which was reaching its end in a couple of months anyways), but initial impressions are that there is a significant increase in soundstage size, and imaging precision, with a modest improvement in the prominence of micro-details. This is less than 20 minutes of the R26 being on, and so it hasn't warmed up fully enough. Of course, all of this is cumulative and built on top of all the tweaks I have done not just to my R26, but to my Freya+ and Gan400 as well which too got their inlets replaced.

For those (crazy enough like me) wanting to do this, I used a solder remover wick to suck up existing solder from the contact points on the board (6 locations) while using a flat screwdrive to apply a bit of separation force, but I ended up destroying the printed board circuit when prying the whole inlet panel away from the board. I am not sure I would have succeeded in not damaging the printed circuit board, but I am no soldering expert and so it might be possible. I did a bit of tracing and identified that the bottom red/black wires on both transformer connectors in their original orientation as likely being the 110v wires which turned out to be right. I just connected the inlet directly to those wires which effectively removed both the fuse and switch in addition to the inlet.

The damaged parts

 

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

I've upgraded to SACD

And here I am converting my DSD files (was a DSD guy before) to PCM when I play thru my FPGA DAC. Different strokes to different folks!

 

[Deleeh]

Surgery completed - looks butt ugly and I threw the warranty out of the window (which was reaching its end in a couple of months anyways), but initial impressions are that there is a significant increase in soundstage size, and imaging precision, with a modest improvement in the prominence of micro-details. This is less than 20 minutes of the R26 being on, and so it hasn't warmed up fully enough. Of course, all of this is cumulative and built on top of all the tweaks I have done not just to my R26, but to my Freya+ and Gan400 as well which too got their inlets replaced.

For those (crazy enough like me) wanting to do this, I used a solder remover wick to suck up existing solder from the contact points on the board (6 locations) while using a flat screwdrive to apply a bit of separation force, but I ended up destroying the printed board circuit when prying the whole inlet panel away from the board. I am not sure I would have succeeded in not damaging the printed circuit board, but I am no soldering expert and so it might be possible. I did a bit of tracing and identified that the bottom red/black wires on both transformer connectors in their original orientation as likely being the 110v wires which turned out to be right. I just connected the inlet directly to those wires which effectively removed both the fuse and switch in addition to the inlet.





The damaged parts

Oh great work man and also very brave of you at this point.
Now that you've removed everything, you can see what the circuit board is for.
It looks like the circuit board only has the task of adjusting the AC voltage.
I'm not an electronics engineer but I reckon this sounds logical for the improvements because the transformers are now connected directly to the inlet.
and the cross-section of the cables allows a little more than on the circuit board.
I guess if you want to copy it you have to be careful to get the correct polarity of the 110/240v AC voltage.

Unfortunately, I don't know how much of an effect it will have if the fuse holder is missing from the inlet.
On the one hand it is good because of the bottle neck problems, on the other hand if there is something the Dac goes straight up because there is no fuse.
One can only hope that everything goes well.

 

[vvume]

Oh great work man and also very brave of you at this point.

Obviously, this is not for the faint of heart. In my case, I already started down the path of modding my components starting with building my CSS 1TDX kit, then changing the caps & resistors on my used Freya+ and eventually getting bolder after each successful effort. But in the grand scheme of things, this is very risky when removing things like the fuse. I already was using a hollow silver slug for 6 months and so had taken the risk prior to the surgery. Of course you could use a fuse higher up the chain if you have something like a power conditioner or isolation transformer for lower power devices.

Having said that, it continues to amaze me how replacing an inlet can make this noticeable (I would even say "big") a difference.

Now that you've removed everything, you can see what the circuit board is for.
It looks like the circuit board only has the task of adjusting the AC voltage.
I'm not an electronics engineer but I reckon this sounds logical for the improvements because the transformers are now connected directly to the inlet.
and the cross-section of the cables allows a little more than on the circuit board.
I guess if you want to copy it you have to be careful to get the correct polarity of the 110/240v AC voltage.

Unfortunately, I don't know how much of an effect it will have if the fuse holder is missing from the inlet.
On the one hand it is good because of the bottle neck problems, on the other hand if there is something the Dac goes straight up because there is no fuse.
One can only hope that everything goes well.

Getting the correct wire selection/polarity was the riskiest part of this mod. Thankfully, I am in the US with 120v and so if I had gotten the wrong set of wires (i.e., 220v), it simply may not have powered up at all. A very dangerous thing to get wrong in 220-240v countries if you plug them to 110v wires - very likely end up in smoke.

 

[SpursForEver]

One also wonders how this affects your insurance, not being authorised to do this kind of modifications, should smth happen. I would really advise against messing with the mains section.

 

[gryphon1972]

Does this work for covering the transformers?

 

[Stellabagpuss]

To the bold R26 modders out there, does anyone have any experience dealing with the AC Inlet on the R26? I am hoping to upgrade the AC inlet to IeGO AC-1 Ag-Rh, but it seems that there is no easy way to dismantle the existing inlet and switch without desoldering it from the board? Any experiences in dismantling this section is appreciated.

Well sorry for the late reply, in the end,like yourself,l totally ditch the rear power inlet., and went a step further,l moved the transformers into a different enclosure, l direct fed the,power in the new enclosure, ditching any power inlets,,and lined the enclosure with Ultraperm 80, then made two separate boxes in Ultraperm 80,two further cross interference between both transformers, as you say, its not for the faint hearted, so really does improve the R26

 

[BShaw]

Does this work for covering the transformers?

It’s ok but copper doesn’t shield the strong magnetic component of the transformers. If you can find the ultraperm80 Stella mentioned, or something like this, it’s much better. The product here is good because it doesn’t suffer in performance like mu metal if it’s bent: https://www.emrss.com/products/magnetic-shielding-mcf5
Or this: https://a.co/d/j2P9zNx

As a plus any of these shields can be connected to a ground pathway to allow higher frequency emf/rfi to drain.