[EMINENT]

Has anyone been able to set the playback rate to 768 kHz?
I can only set it up to 384 kHz with the driver.

Also has anyone managed to play at 192 kHz over optical without jitter dropouts?

I have not tried optical.

384 is the max I have for 24 in Windows via usb.
705.6 for HQP. No dropouts.


I have tested cycling between all the filters and Nos On/Off while HQP is playing and no difference. Seems like with HQP enabled, the internals are locked. The only way to invoke any changes is while HQP is disabled and doesn't have control anymore. I can tell with Nos On vs. Off though. It is weird. With Nos On it is like the air and treble is all chopped off.

 

[PointyFox]

I have not tried optical.

384 is the max I have for 24 in Windows via usb.
705.6 for HQP. No dropouts.


I have tested cycling between all the filters and Nos On/Off while HQP is playing and no difference. Seems like with HQP enabled, the internals are locked. The only way to invoke any changes is while HQP is disabled and doesn't have control anymore. I can tell with Nos On vs. Off though. It is weird. With Nos On it is like the air and treble is all chopped off.

Yeah, NOS caps the max frequency. At 46 kHz sample rate the cap is like 8 kHz, so Gustard recommends it only be used with higher sample rates.
What's HQP?

 

[Glokta]

What's HQP?

HQPlayer

 

[GoldenSound]

I thought @GoldenOne review found that it was just another filter. So, if using HQP instead of Vivid or the "pseudo" nos mode is different than the oversampling filters built in, is it better or more accurate?

Yes
The 'NOS' mode on x26 Pro is just a very short minimum phase filter it seems.

Its not possible to run NOS on a delta sigma dac. Delta sigma dacs rely on oversampling to function properly as they effectively operate on the principle that instead of having a converter accurate to say 16 bits, you can make one accurate to 1-6 bits, and just run it really really fast and it will average out to the same level of accuracy.

Take the oversampling away entirely and you'd be left with a converter that is only accurate to a few bits.

 

[PointyFox]

I'm using this Douk Audio U2Pro box thing to output i2s to my Gustard X26 Pro: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HN3VSF8
But the left and right channels are reversed on the i2s connection.
Does anyone know how to swap them?

Edit: Got an answer: Switch cables to amp. That works, well for this one input.

 

[allhifi]

I haven't watched the video however I'd guess that like with pretty much anyone who comments on the "sound of a DAC", they completely neglected to disclose what headphones they were using...

Great point. And what cables (digital and analog) and AC power source (Wall, Balanced, AC Re-Gen) and even where the DAC/component is placed (stand/shelf/platform) !
Or whether the device was given enough 'settling/break-in' time. All of these things have a dramatic impact on performance/SQ.

pj

 

[allhifi]

I'm using this Douk Audio U2Pro box thing to output i2s to my Gustard X26 Pro: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HN3VSF8
But the left and right channels are reversed on the i2s connection.
Does anyone know how to swap them?

Edit: Got an answer: Switch cables to amp. That works, well for this one input.

Anyone notice the I2S sounds quite a bit better than optical?

(RE: " ...But the left and right channels are reversed on the i2s connection.")

I noticed this too -and thus cannot use i2S !?? (On both X-22 and X-26PRO)

Anyone know if this can be internally changed -DIP switch ? Or whether Gustard even
knows of this, or has a 'fix' ?

Thanks,

pj

 

[allhifi]

I'm using this Douk Audio U2Pro box thing to output i2s to my Gustard X26 Pro: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HN3VSF8
But the left and right channels are reversed on the i2s connection.
Does anyone know how to swap them?

Edit: Got an answer: Switch cables to amp. That works, well for this one input.

'i2S' should sound better than spdif. Interestingly, that's not always the case.
Case-in-point; channel reversal/error -non i2S standard/spec.
Naturally, separate 'Wrd. Clk' would be best, and lately the dual BNC or AES/EBU
options have surfaced, yet comparisons/superiority remains sparse.

pj

 

[Infoseeker]

According to Golden's review, the USB jitter is very competent and you shouldn't need to use the i2S ports (or any of the DDC ports) beyond having a source that isn't a computer with USB.

 

[allhifi]

@EMINENT If you make Roon or HQPlayer upsample everything to the max capability of the DAC 705.6 or 768 then it won't need to do any internal upsampling. All delta-sigma DACs upsample, the NOS mode on X26Pro is just another filter.

@FractalSound I couldn't get Amazon Music to work in exclusive mode in Windows, it's always resampling no matter what, always using the bit depth and sampling rate from the sound control panel.

@allhifi I agree that there are a lot of factors to count it, the timbre is not off at all in my system. Either way, for the price, this thing is more than amazing, I bought it just for testing purposes and it's still on one of my desks. I'll try and make a comparison soon, I have / had a lot of gear that I can compare it to.

Hi Glokta: How much time was required before the 'X-26PRO' 'settled' (i.e. Break-In time) ?

pj

 

[Glokta]

Hi Glokta: How much time was required before the 'X-26PRO' 'settled' (i.e. Break-In time) ?

pj

Hi mate, I'd say about 50h of continuos play, couldn't hear any differences past that point.

 

[Glokta]

After spending about 2 months with this unit I believe it’s time to give it my 2 cents.

I don’t really want to make comparisons from memory, take it with a grain of salt, but I have had too many DAC’s to not include them. (The ones I have on hand are the RME ADI-2 and a Mola mola Tambaqui which is in a different ballpark as price goes but still)

The problem would be the price of the unit which is not here not there…about $1500 putting it in a strange price bracket.

Alright but what other equipment did you use to evaluate this so we know where we stand? Amps: iFi Ican Pro with the iPower Elite, Violectric V550. Headsets: Grado Hemp, Fostex Th909, Focal Clear, Final Audio D8000 Pro. Filtering was on Vivid, was using Roon to resample from Qobuz so it was running at the max sampling rate always. Music was old rock / metal, electronica, pop, synth pop. (Think Dio, Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Radiohead, Kraftwerk, etc)



So what is good about it? Well…how about everything?


The soundstage is not the biggest one but it’s good, the depth perceived is also good. The detail retrieval is excellent with a muscular midrange, everything is fluid. Transparency? Speed? Transients? All beautiful and spot on.

It never gets fatiguing but it’s not fuzzy up top, no grain, no anything, there’s air around the instruments.

I listen to a lot of electronic music and this thing can slam, the bass delivery is nothing short of exceptional. It’s just effortless through all the bass frequency range.


I can safely say this is above Topping D90SE, SMSL D1se, Qutest, Ares II, RME ADI-2, Mytek Brooklyn DAC+. Unfortunately I haven’t heard the SMSL VMV D2.

I’ve also compared it a lot with my friends Matrix Element X which was $3000+, even if that has a lot of extra features. This is at the same level and sometimes even surpassed the Matrix and we’ve also tested them on some Buchardt speakers. Bonkers!

Honesty, if you’d put me in a blind test and would say this thing is $3000 I’d believe it in an instant.



I’m so impressed that I’ll buy the DDC from them so I can feed it through I2S and then I’ll get their 10Mhz clock.


What can I say, BRAVO Gustard! Nothing short of impressive at this price.

 

[bouscadie]

despite all its qualities, I quickly got "bored" with the Matrix Element, too smooth and sometimes a bit tiring as well. Would you say that the Gustard brings the same feeling to the music, or something different?

Thanks

 

[Glokta]

I'd say the Gustard is more engaging in the way it presents the music although my friend wasn't to keen to admit that
Not to mention it can only get better with the ddc and clock added, if I remember correctly GoldenOne said it's improving with the I2S input.

 

[EMINENT]

I'd say the Gustard is more engaging in the way it presents the music although my friend wasn't to keen to admit that
Not to mention it can only get better with the ddc and clock added, if I remember correctly GoldenOne said it's improving with the I2S input.

Could you expand on that and what a ddc mproves? My only reference is Golden's video on ddc's. I took away better jitter and less noise below audible threshold, but you're saying there is an audible improvement. And, is the iGalvanic one of them because the X26 Pro is not galvanically isolated?