[Highfive99]

same user of U18 and X26 Pro, I just use LHY OCK2 instead of AfterDark. Honestly, a clock together with U18 and X26 Pro somehow produces a synergy that is well beyond the price tag of these equipment. I have compared it with R26, the R26 cannot match X26 Pro in the bass department, and with a matching clock, the R2R cannot even beat X26 Pro in the mids and airy treble. With X26 Pro alone, it will lose out to R26..... however with U18+X26 Pro+Clock, the synergy works. I played with a lot of equipment, even the more expensive Weiss 204 DAC may not beat this combo.

Opinions are great! But the 204 isn't beat by that combo. I have an OCK-1+U18+X26Pro (both with purple fuses and good cables. A rig I was quite happy with). Then I tried a Weiss 204 figuring I have 30 days to see if it's worth it to me and just to try a higher end DAC for the first time. Now that it has a couple hundred hours on it blows away the Gustard stuff in every conceivable way to my ears. The detail, nuance, bass clarity and overall muscial presentation is just so much more 'real' and engaging with the 204. And this is still with the medical grade SMPS it came with so there's still room for even more improvement once I get a LPS for it. No need for fancy clocks, DDC's, expensive fuses and BNC cables etc. The 204 is flat out in another league to the Gustard stuff. But to be fair the Gustard stuff is a great bang for buck. I can't knock it at all. It sounds superb and for sure punches above its weight. The Weiss is just higher end.

 

[Revolution1]

Thanks for your sarcasm. FYI, I use Audio Research preamp, Nord Acoustics power amp and Magnepan 1.6QR speakers. I think this combo is much more revealing than a headphone com

This is exactly what you are saying.
It turns out that your combination of Nord Acoustics power amp and Magnepan 1.6QR speakers is no better in resolution than the $100 Edifier R1100.
Those also show one layer of the choir without any problems.

on my system with a clock I can hear in a good choir recording there are 4 to 5 layers of singers back to front, whereas without a clock I only hear one single layer.

 

[ray12345]

This is exactly what you are saying.
It turns out that your combination of Nord Acoustics power amp and Magnepan 1.6QR speakers is no better in resolution than the $100 Edifier R1100.
Those also show one layer of the choir without any problems.

I completely lost you as to what you are trying to express here.

 

[ray12345]

Opinions are great! But the 204 isn't beat by that combo. I have an OCK-1+U18+X26Pro (both with purple fuses and good cables. A rig I was quite happy with). Then I tried a Weiss 204 figuring I have 30 days to see if it's worth it to me and just to try a higher end DAC for the first time. Now that it has a couple hundred hours on it blows away the Gustard stuff in every conceivable way to my ears. The detail, nuance, bass clarity and overall muscial presentation is just so much more 'real' and engaging with the 204. And this is still with the medical grade SMPS it came with so there's still room for even more improvement once I get a LPS for it. No need for fancy clocks, DDC's, expensive fuses and BNC cables etc. The 204 is flat out in another league to the Gustard stuff. But to be fair the Gustard stuff is a great bang for buck. I can't knock it at all. It sounds superb and for sure punches above its weight. The Weiss is just higher end.

What is the streamer you are using? I think that is the main reason we are seeing different results. Also, OCK2 is a big step ahead of OCK1, try it. The bass from X26 Pro with OCK2 is high end level good.

In general, I agree with you the Weiss produces a more 'analog' kind of sound in most systems and will sound better than Gustard in most systems. In my particular system, I use uPNP in Foobar and BubbleUPnP with some Windows tweaking, somehow this way it gets rid of the 'digital' sound that I hear from most digital streamers, so even using Gustard I am hearing analog LP kind of sound, and that takes the edge away from Weiss. I am not saying Weiss lose out to Gustard, in some areas like the density of soundstage the Weiss is still better, it just does not 100% beat out my X26 Pro combo, which is at maybe half the price of the Weiss.

I must confess I haven't tried the Weiss with other LPS though, I suppose it should be a lot better with a better LPS. Anyway, it is not a fair comparison as I have done heavy tuning and tweaking on clock cables and power cables for all my Gustard components, the cables alone is more expensive than the U18, it is like comparing a preamp power amp combo with an integrated amp. Weiss being everything integrated definitely wins in the convenience department.

 

[Thetaburn]

What is the streamer you are using? I think that is the main reason we are seeing different results. Also, OCK2 is a big step ahead of OCK1, try it. The bass from X26 Pro with OCK2 is high end level good.

In general, I agree with you the Weiss produces a more 'analog' kind of sound in most systems and will sound better than Gustard in most systems. In my particular system, I use uPNP in Foobar and BubbleUPnP with some Windows tweaking, somehow this way it gets rid of the 'digital' sound that I hear from most digital streamers, so even using Gustard I am hearing analog LP kind of sound, and that takes the edge away from Weiss. I must confess I haven't tried the Weiss with other LPS though, I suppose it should be a lot better with a better LPS.

I listen to the U18+ock2+x26pro+Burson Soloist 3x to He1000v2 on a daily basis.

Zero motivation to upgrade, it's good stuff.

 

[JaMo]

Hi all,
This is the Master Clock thread as You all well know. I now feed most of my digital stuff with my Mutec REF10 SE120.
I have a bunch of dac's both from Audio-gd & Gustard and also a few of other brands. I have been buying and testing and selling alot of them. I think both Audio-gd (Kingwa) and the Gustard team does a brilliant job in their designs to get a significant performance lift in their gears using good External Master clocks.

Where I am, there is no way back without the EXT XO 10MHz (Master clock). I knew pretty fast in my "research" or investigating if You like regarding these clocks and the impact of them that a high end clock with many outputs is right for me.

So where is this heading... Well, to the area where I haven't (yet) been using the synchronized time pulse in, I meaning in the digital music streamers. This is not 100% true because I use the internal renderers in the Gustard (R26 and A26 using masterclock). Beside those I use Raspberry Pi 3B+ and 4B's using their own passive oscillators and the linux based piCorePlayer software since many years.

Our good friend and frequently posting Head-fi-member @FredA have found a nice device named C19 and it is based on the CM4 board (Rasberry Pi 4). For me this was new info. This is a ready to go device where You can choose onboard OCXO or prepared for 10MHz Master clock input. I ordered one too after @FredA 's very positive comments on its performance. For me, with this in place, I will have a full digital chain sharing the Mutec 10MHz clock pulse. I don't think it can be much better

Link: https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005005549410657.html

/Jan

p.s. I also found an addon board for the RaspBerryPi 4B. To get it to work there are risks to damage Your 4B board but I will give it a try. This is not for low skilled DIY-guys/gals
Link: https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005003218394435.html

 

[bodiebill2]

Hi all,
This is the Master Clock thread as You all well know. I now feed most of my digital stuff with my Mutec REF10 SE120.
I have a bunch of dac's both from Audio-gd & Gustard and also a few of other brands. I have been buying and testing and selling alot of them. I think both Audio-gd (Kingwa) and the Gustard team does a brilliant job in their designs to get a significant performance lift in their gears using good External Master clocks.

Where I am, there is no way back without the EXT XO 10MHz (Master clock). I knew pretty fast in my "research" or investigating if You like regarding these clocks and the impact of them that a high end clock with many outputs is right for me.

So where is this heading... Well, to the area where I haven't (yet) been using the synchronized time pulse in, I meaning in the digital music streamers. This is not 100% true because I use the internal renderers in the Gustard (R26 and A26 using masterclock). Beside those I use Raspberry Pi 3B+ and 4B's using their own passive oscillators and the linux based piCorePlayer software since many years.

Our good friend and frequently posting Head-fi-member @FredA have found a nice device named C19 and it is based on the CM4 board (Rasperry Pi 4). For me this was new info. This is a ready to go device where You can choose onboard OCXO or prepared for 10MHz Master clock input. I ordered one too after @FredA 's very positive comments on its performance. For me, with this in place, I will have a full digital chain sharing the Mutec 10MHz clock pulse. I don't think it can be much better

Link: https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005005549410657.html

/Jan

p.s. I also found an addon board for the RaspBerryPi 4B. To get it to work there are risks to damage Your 4B board but I will give it a try. This is not for low skilled DIY-guys/gals
Link: https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005003218394435.html

Indeed a nice find, and I was also ogling this one. Where does the OS reside? Is it fixed or on an internal SD card? If the latter, can it be used with another OS, such as GentooPlayer?

 

[FredA]

Hi all,
This is the Master Clock thread as You all well know. I now feed most of my digital stuff with my Mutec REF10 SE120.
I have a bunch of dac's both from Audio-gd & Gustard and also a few of other brands. I have been buying and testing and selling alot of them. I think both Audio-gd (Kingwa) and the Gustard team does a brilliant job in their designs to get a significant performance lift in their gears using good External Master clocks.

Where I am, there is no way back without the EXT XO 10MHz (Master clock). I knew pretty fast in my "research" or investigating if You like regarding these clocks and the impact of them that a high end clock with many outputs is right for me.

So where is this heading... Well, to the area where I haven't (yet) been using the synchronized time pulse in, I meaning in the digital music streamers. This is not 100% true because I use the internal renderers in the Gustard (R26 and A26 using masterclock). Beside those I use Raspberry Pi 3B+ and 4B's using their own passive oscillators and the linux based piCorePlayer software since many years.

Our good friend and frequently posting Head-fi-member @FredA have found a nice device named C19 and it is based on the CM4 board (Rasperry Pi 4). For me this was new info. This is a ready to go device where You can choose onboard OCXO or prepared for 10MHz Master clock input. I ordered one too after @FredA 's very positive comments on its performance. For me, with this in place, I will have a full digital chain sharing the Mutec 10MHz clock pulse. I don't think it can be much better

Link: https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005005549410657.html

/Jan

p.s. I also found an addon board for the RaspBerryPi 4B. To get it to work there are risks to damage Your 4B board but I will give it a try. This is not for low skilled DIY-guys/gals
Link: https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005003218394435.html

Thanks for the nice words, Jan.

The streamer has some small shortcomings, some of which could be fixed eventually soon as i submitted my comments to the ali seller, which relays them to the factory.

See my post original post for more info:


https://www.head-fi.org/threads/new...cs-and-dac-amps.853902/page-718#post-17755114

 

[FredA]

Indeed a nice find, and I was also ogling this one. Where does the OS reside? Is it fixed or on an internal SD card? If the latter, can it be used with another OS, such as GentooPlayer?

Yep, there is a microSd inside. The cover (top) is screwed from the bottom and very tightly fit. Hard to remove. See my original post

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/new...cs-and-dac-amps.853902/page-718#post-17755114

 

[Dandoudou]

p.s. I also found an addon board for the RaspBerryPi 4B. To get it to work there are risks to damage Your 4B board but I will give it a try. This is not for low skilled DIY-guys/gals
Link: https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005003218394435.html

It seems like a HAT for the Rpi. Why do you think that it requires high skills of DIY?

 

[FredA]

It seems like a HAT for the Rpi. Why do you think that it requires high skills of DIY?

Removing the small XOs and soldering tinny cables on surface mount.

 

[doitttt]

I have gustard a26
found out with 10mhz clock mutec ref 10 couldn't get any further into the sound
but found out lan and nas were not me
then I bought Eversolo DMP-A6 900 dollars
The Eversolo DMP-A6 is better than a streamer that costs more than 4000 dollars
in Eversolo DMP-A6 put in m2 2280 sdd nvme 4tb in
copy files onto it
output coax from Eversolo DMP-A6 to gustard a26
how does it sound
Fantastic bass, midrange is very detailed, the treble is no overshot, very soft in sound
bonus I hear micro detail and things I haven't heard before
https://www.eversolo.com/Product/index/model/DMP-A6/target/7abWHw++oHhKKmVViAFMcQ==.html

 

[OCC7N]

I have gustard a26
found out with 10mhz clock mutec ref 10 couldn't get any further into the sound
but found out lan and nas were not me
then I bought Eversolo DMP-A6 900 dollars
The Eversolo DMP-A6 is better than a streamer that costs more than 4000 dollars
in Eversolo DMP-A6 put in m2 2280 sdd nvme 4tb in
copy files onto it
output coax from Eversolo DMP-A6 to gustard a26
how does it sound
Fantastic bass, midrange is very detailed, the treble is no overshot, very soft in sound
bonus I hear micro detail and things I haven't heard before
https://www.eversolo.com/Product/index/model/DMP-A6/target/7abWHw++oHhKKmVViAFMcQ==.html

It is a very interesting product!

It looks like a very flexible product with inputs and outputs. It even has USBC input, is that for source/pc also?

What I always miss in these types of products is them to stream both the Ethernet/input and USB/input out to the external USB output, instead of switching and being depended on one input.

 

[xkamran]

Guys need little help and much needed encouragement. I have gustard r26 u28 ddc connected to burson timekeeper 3ir and spendor classic speakers. I use burson headphone amp with same rig. I get a good transperent sound with good sound stage however i think mids can do a little better eg vocals. Looking at lhy OCK-1 or OCK-2. Which one should i get?

 

[FredA]

Guys need little help and much needed encouragement. I have gustard r26 u28 ddc connected to burson timekeeper 3ir and spendor classic speakers. I use burson headphone amp with same rig. I get a good transperent sound with good sound stage however i think mids can do a little better eg vocals. Looking at lhy OCK-1 or OCK-2. Which one should i get?

OCK2. Worth the extra money.

If you dac has no burn-in, it will get better.