Gustard R26 - Day 7 impressions. All music over LAN from Roon Nucleus (the streamer+dac combo alone makes this a tremendous value prop)
~7days 24/7 burn-in. Bass tightened, upper end and mids opened up a bit.
So, whats special? Bass, detail/articulation, soundstage, coherence, no chip dac glare/heat.
very punchy and tight bass. my other dacs not even close. went very low with my Krell/Wilson combo, less so with Dynaudio powered desktops (no surprise).
sometimes the bass 'punchiness' too forward and gets in way of rest of music.
extraordinarily detailed and articulate - you just hear everything high and low. everything. quite amazing coming from an R2R - no compromise here and, in fact, more than my chip dacs. go figure.
despite extraordinary detail retrieval, nothing etched or hot. and nothing sounds rolled off on upper end. you hear amazing upper end detail, but without glare, etch, and heat.
one surprising property is the R26's ability to spotlight an instrument or lead vocal, without burying or leaving anything else behind.
soundstage width is leaps beyond my Bryston, SMSL, Oppo, Esoteric dacs. esp. in desktop, near-field rig (Dynaudio Excite X14A - just extraordinary near-field speakers).
exactly what I was hoping for in an R2R vs chip dac.
lovely 'flow' to music - everything just melds and pours out from speakers beautifully though, again, punchy bass can be a bit pronounced.
wanted to say somewhat slow pacing/PRAT, but listening to more music it's definitely not slow. trying hard to avoid that 'organic' word.
one quality I was hoping for was more 'air and decay' around notes but not hearing it (yet?) w Gustard R26. amazing separation and articulation but not so much floaty air. YRMV
Hands down my best dac experience to date
gotta say, for me and my systems, this is one of those 'shake your head in amazement' experiences. been collecting and upgrading hifi gear for 25+ years and this is one of the very few gear changes that makes as much difference as I hoped for. tamed one of my hotter main rigs - Krell 302E w PSA BHK Sig preamp. Next rotation will be in Ayre MX-R monos w ARC pre and Wilsons.
again, first R2R dac so no A/B w Pontus, other R2Rs. . . but doesn't matter. so satisfied with what I'm hearing, not caring about what I'm missing.
easy decision - selling off my other dacs and buying another Gustard R26. done.
as always, YRMV
p.s. anyone saying or thinking R2Rs give up detail for coherent flow and soundstage hasn't heard the R26