Gustard X16 MQA DAC

[cirodts]

after so many dacs .. I finally hear the sundara playing divinely without screaming in the mid-high range

 

[cirodts]

I am using x16 in rca, if i use xlr cables then in fully balanced i will have noticeable sound improvements?
What settings do you recommend between filter, inverted phase and nos?
thank you.

 

[cirodts]

I received my x16 gustard but there is no distallation disc in the box, why?

 

[shwnwllms]

I received my x16 gustard but there is no distallation disc in the box, why?

The installation disk is a mini disk for some odd reason. You don’t need it though, everything can be found here:

https://download.shenzhenaudio.com/#Gustard_X16/1

 

[Fly2High]

Why do the cymbals completely disappear when I turn NOS on? Any idea what is happening?

Doesn't matter if I am listening to active speakers or headphones. I have my X16 going into a Singxer SA-1 and then to speakers or HP.

 

[Jay_vs]

Why do the cymbals completely disappear when I turn NOS on? Any idea what is happening?

Doesn't matter if I am listening to active speakers or headphones. I have my X16 going into a Singxer SA-1 and then to speakers or HP.

If you use the X16 in NOS mode with 16/44.1 khz, the high frequencies are terrible. But if you upsample that to 176.4 khz, 352.8 khz even 705,6 khz , then the frequency extension is fine.

 

[shwnwllms]

Why do the cymbals completely disappear when I turn NOS on? Any idea what is happening?

Doesn't matter if I am listening to active speakers or headphones. I have my X16 going into a Singxer SA-1 and then to speakers or HP.

The NOS mode isn’t great on the X16, unless you plan on upsampling yourself via software such as HQPlayer I wouldn’t even recommend using it at all. You certainly can upsample in Roon, but its taxing on your computer and IMO hardware upsampling is almost always better that software upsampling, especially on a modern (very capable) DAC such as the X16 usng the ES9068AS chipset. Turn off NOS mode, set the PCM filter to L-Fast and let the DAC do its thing. These low powered chips were designed to be efficient and drive a clean up sampled signal to your amp, no need to circumvent that.

 

[shwnwllms]

Any Gustard X16 owners completed the DSD fix themselves (via Firmware update) or did you send it in for repair / replacement?

 

[albarot]

There s a guy audioscience review that did firmware update, but you need additional hardware to do it and i think Gustard link the actual firmware in one post, just look the last 5 or so page.
As for me i have the X16 and the A90 amp and the sundara. But i don t like that pairing, not horrible just whatever. On a another forum someone told me it s because of the A90 that it doesn t sound as good. I am wondering if connecting the x16 and A90 with xlr will add soundstage? cause that is my biggest complain about this dac.

 

[shwnwllms]

There s a guy audioscience review that did firmware update, but you need additional hardware to do it and i think Gustard link the actual firmware in one post, just look the last 5 or so page.
As for me i have the X16 and the A90 amp and the sundara. But i don t like that pairing, not horrible just whatever. On a another forum someone told me it s because of the A90 that it doesn t sound as good. I am wondering if connecting the x16 and A90 with xlr will add soundstage? cause that is my biggest complain about this dac.

Yeah I saw that, I don’t use DSD so I’m not in a rush and certainly don’t want to pay for a programmer. It sounds like Gustard may be providing them to their distributors to do the upgrades (and possibly send out to their customers). I got a response from Gustard on it but it wasn’t exactly clear what to do so I reached out to ShenzhenAudio, hopefully they can clarify the process.

I can’t speak to the A90 but I doubt changing to XLR would make any significant difference in soundstage. They may not have good synergy. It sounds great with the Singxer SA-1 however.

 

[maxifuny]

Why do the cymbals completely disappear when I turn NOS on? Any idea what is happening?

nothing unusual

 

[maxifuny]

which is why I am using a different filter

 

[maxifuny]

Hmm, I apologize to some very sensitive owners, but I could not help but modify my C16. I hate opa1612, and gladly replaced them. Balance at opa1656 and single + opa2140. Now my DAC sounds even more attractive to me. Together with H16, this can be an endgame for many music lovers

 

[MohawkUS]

nothing unusual

Quite unusual actually. That's an extreme roll-off compare to traditional R2R NOS DACs. This is actually fascinating at it indicates this DAC has the potential of maintaining a perfect impulse response while also filtering out enough above the nyquist to limit aliasing error.

I actually decided to test this with my X16, a rough EQ compensating for the roll-off, and this test here: http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/03/can-you-hear-this-hearing-test/
With a 'true' NOS R2R DAC you'll get audible results from all high frequency tests as the DAC is aliasing(meaning it's playing lower frequency content it shouldn't be.) Because of aliasing an unfiltered NOS DAC can appear to play lower tones as you go above a certain frequency in sweeps. I once thought I had superhuman hearing and could hear past 20khz before I learned about this.
I'm late 20s and generally hear just past 18khz using any modern audio gear.

Control results(X16 in L-Fast NOS OFF): I can hear the 18khz tone & detect sound pressure up to 20khz. Going through the tests the frequency rises as expected.
NOS ON, no EQ: I can hear up to 17khz & cannot detect anything higher. the frequencies rise in tone as expected with OS(This is novel for NOS!) Volume drops rapidly with increasing frequency.
NOS ON, EQ: Same as above with the volume loss minimized(I'm an EQ newb, with time I'm sure I could knock these out.) I thought I could hear 18khz in one round of testing but it wasn't repeatable. I'm not sure why this isn't showing similar results to the control as the EQ should be compensating well enough for the roll-off.

The EQ in question:

I'm glad to have stumbled into this discussion as it peaks my curiosity as to what can be achieved with this novel approach to NOS. I've always been one who prefers the timing presentation of NOS(it's easier to follow along with busy music IME) but disliked the various flaws which result from the lack of proper filtering above the Nyquist. I'm going to have to test this more thoroughly to see if the DAC can achieve the positive traits of NOS design, if so this would be a first for any sigma-delta DAC(I've tried and disliked the AKM 'super-slow' approach.) As per the extreme roll-off which removes certain elements of the music EQ takes care of that just fine; I'm enjoying some sparkly synths & cymbals as I type.

 

[maxifuny]

Quite unusual actually.

I'm not surprised because the 38 and 68 models can work as a multi-bit DAC in NOS. AK4493, 95, for example, in Super Slow roll off mode, can work in the same way. note - the decline is very typical