m-i-c-k-e-y
Headphoneus Supremus
Their thoughts, their ears, NOT YOURS...unless his name is Tyll...missed the guy.
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GUSTARD DAC-R26 Balanced Decoder R2R+1Bit Dual Native Decoding Music Bridge
- Thread starter m-i-c-k-e-y
- Start date
Their thoughts, their ears, NOT YOURS...unless his name is Tyll...missed the guy.
All of my other DACs will be for sale. I can't believe I hear people talking about the R26 as being "polite" "soft" or "comfortable R2R" sounding. That thing slams with HQ Player upsampling PCM WAV files to 32/ 768. It is overall much better than my A26 can do on the best DSD direct settings that I can feed it. PCM to DSD conversion in HQ Player does make better sense out of the analog conversion with a Delta/ Sigma DAC like the A26 but the required processing power is immense if you try to use the best sounding settings for the modulator. My Gaming laptop has the fan screaming for mercy and sometimes skips when using a modulator that can begin to make the A26 sound better via DSD than PCM. There are better sounding settings to be had in HQ Player for DSD but I can't run them unless I buy a $2000 super-computing tower.
My hope in trying the R26 was that, it being an R2R, which operate native with PCM, that it would sound best with upsampled PCM direct. Which uses a fraction of the power for HQP to create out of PCM files and so would save me the expense of a new computer. It sounds fantastic. Deep, black, separated, extended at both extremes. And contrary to R2R presumption, slams with explosive attack via upsampled files through the LAN.
DSD direct into the R26 sounds kind of broken. There is a "tape hiss" sound when it connects and the sound is flatter and more congested.
Upsampling and conversions are now.
Hopefully the reviewers will all adopt this in one form or another so we can get a better idea of what the best sound can be with these new high rate DACs. Some of the reviews made the R26 sound like it might tend toward boring or romantic or euphonic, which it definitely is not.
My hope in trying the R26 was that, it being an R2R, which operate native with PCM, that it would sound best with upsampled PCM direct. Which uses a fraction of the power for HQP to create out of PCM files and so would save me the expense of a new computer. It sounds fantastic. Deep, black, separated, extended at both extremes. And contrary to R2R presumption, slams with explosive attack via upsampled files through the LAN.
DSD direct into the R26 sounds kind of broken. There is a "tape hiss" sound when it connects and the sound is flatter and more congested.
Upsampling and conversions are now.
Hopefully the reviewers will all adopt this in one form or another so we can get a better idea of what the best sound can be with these new high rate DACs. Some of the reviews made the R26 sound like it might tend toward boring or romantic or euphonic, which it definitely is not.
Awesome to hear the R26 is working so well for you! Another happy HQP PCM768 user. Just upgraded my power amp from a Hypex Nilai to a Pass Labs (paired with my Athena pre) and my R26-based system is singing like never before! Dynamic & deft, weighty & spacious.. just excellent.
m-i-c-k-e-y
Headphoneus Supremus
I've got an FPGA DAC that was marketted as a DSD DAC (as its forte) but love it in PCM768 instead.
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My playback chain is laptop harddrive 44, 48, and 192 WAV files> i7 13th, nVidia 4060, 16GB DDR5 B(ut laptop cooling is obviously inferior to a liquid cooled tower)> HQ Player upsampled to 32/ 768 or DSD256> LAN RJ45 CAT6 (or USB via Supra Excalibur)> TP Link router> LAN CAT6 into the Gustards playing direct>
The A26 sounds better when fed DSD direct over LAN from HQ Player but DSD conversion of PCM files is resource intensive. I contemplated buying a better tower with i7 14th, nVidia 4070 Super, 32 GB. Which would cost $2000. And chew up 130 Watts. Just to play a song. My laptop shows 20W at the AC cord when playing PCM at the highest settings flawlessly and 85W for DSD, with skips.
So I purchased the Gustard R26 for $1600 instead since it plays PCM 768 native. And I can get something back from selling the A26 if I want. My new laptop that I am already stuck with plays PCM768 with ease. barely raising the power consumption from 15W to 20W. Attempting PCM to DSD 256 even using the lesser sounding UL modulator is pegging something when fed with 192 files to 85W and skipping even on this relatively wimpy setting. In between the skips, or with 44.1k files that do not skip, I can still get a good, level matched comparison between the A26 playing DSD 256 direct over LAN, and the R26 playing PCM 768 NOS direct over LAN.
I'm happy to say that the R26 sounds better anyway. So I can save from buying another more expensive computer.
Drum kit is more spacious and pristine. Electric guitar amp hum is located and attached better to the amp. The bottom string of finger picked acoustic guitar is more clearly attached to the guitar body of the instrument with the rest of the strings for examples of the more coherent sound of the upsampled R26. DSD does make the A26 sound more organic and natural and does a good job on center vocals, making the R26 sound a bit cooler, but at its best with the computer that I have, with ASDM7EC-super at DSD256 for the A26, the R26 is snappier, blacker, deeper and wider and at the same time presents at a more coherent image with every sound more in its place.
I don't own or stream a single DSD file and probably never will. So It's nice that there are great sounding PCM DACs that don't need any conversion to SDM anywhere. I would happily buy an R26-Super that would eliminate the DSD decoding hardware all together and put the money toward an additional parallel resistor ladder for the PCM to improve the poorly measuring low level linearity and distortion. I can only imagine where the sound quality of PCM native will continue to go with great products like some next gen Schiit Yggy, Holo, or Laiv DAC advancing this tech, and building the decoding to take full advantage of these outboard upsampler/ filters like HQ Player.
The A26 sounds better when fed DSD direct over LAN from HQ Player but DSD conversion of PCM files is resource intensive. I contemplated buying a better tower with i7 14th, nVidia 4070 Super, 32 GB. Which would cost $2000. And chew up 130 Watts. Just to play a song. My laptop shows 20W at the AC cord when playing PCM at the highest settings flawlessly and 85W for DSD, with skips.
So I purchased the Gustard R26 for $1600 instead since it plays PCM 768 native. And I can get something back from selling the A26 if I want. My new laptop that I am already stuck with plays PCM768 with ease. barely raising the power consumption from 15W to 20W. Attempting PCM to DSD 256 even using the lesser sounding UL modulator is pegging something when fed with 192 files to 85W and skipping even on this relatively wimpy setting. In between the skips, or with 44.1k files that do not skip, I can still get a good, level matched comparison between the A26 playing DSD 256 direct over LAN, and the R26 playing PCM 768 NOS direct over LAN.
I'm happy to say that the R26 sounds better anyway. So I can save from buying another more expensive computer.
Drum kit is more spacious and pristine. Electric guitar amp hum is located and attached better to the amp. The bottom string of finger picked acoustic guitar is more clearly attached to the guitar body of the instrument with the rest of the strings for examples of the more coherent sound of the upsampled R26. DSD does make the A26 sound more organic and natural and does a good job on center vocals, making the R26 sound a bit cooler, but at its best with the computer that I have, with ASDM7EC-super at DSD256 for the A26, the R26 is snappier, blacker, deeper and wider and at the same time presents at a more coherent image with every sound more in its place.
I don't own or stream a single DSD file and probably never will. So It's nice that there are great sounding PCM DACs that don't need any conversion to SDM anywhere. I would happily buy an R26-Super that would eliminate the DSD decoding hardware all together and put the money toward an additional parallel resistor ladder for the PCM to improve the poorly measuring low level linearity and distortion. I can only imagine where the sound quality of PCM native will continue to go with great products like some next gen Schiit Yggy, Holo, or Laiv DAC advancing this tech, and building the decoding to take full advantage of these outboard upsampler/ filters like HQ Player.
m-i-c-k-e-y
Headphoneus Supremus
Tried upsampling DSD to PCM768?
In my case, everything is upconverted to PCM768 (for now, at least on the current DAC I have).
In my case, everything is upconverted to PCM768 (for now, at least on the current DAC I have).
BShaw
500+ Head-Fier
Excellent review with well informed observations. I’ve been running my R26 at pcm 768 for a few months but got caught up in the Holo Cyan2/DSD excitement's and expect it to arrive any day. You’re not the first person who ended up preferring PCM, so I’m going to be doing a lot of critical listening in the month of June. If PCM is my preference I’ll probably sell both and buy a LAIV
amrutmhatre90
Head-Fier
I'm one of those guys who runs two desktops with HQPlayer: one for PCM upsampling and another for DSD upsampling.
The PCM 768 upsampling is done on a Mini PC, a Zotac Magnus with an RTX 3060, which also hosts Roon.
The DSD 512 upsampling is managed by a high-end PC with an RTX 4070 Super Ti.
Both setups use HQPlayer NAA with an FMC mod, and I'm planning to add an external clock in the future.
I enjoy both sound profiles. The DSD setup sounds almost analog in my system, and I have a Technics SL-1200 and around 200 LPs for reference.
CFGamescape
500+ Head-Fier
Someone buy my R26 (link in sig) before I decide to keep it!
BShaw
500+ Head-Fier
.......why don't you just keep it? I see you already have a Ferrum Wandla, do you think the R26 sounds better? The Wandla is a helluva DAC, using Jussi's filters (HQP) and will be future proof as new filters roll out.
CFGamescape
500+ Head-Fier
Nah, I need to sell it. Wandla is better. R26 does a hell of a job competing with it, though!
Nice - I hear the Wandla matches and betters the new LAiV in several respects, sounds a great DAC.
As a matter of interest I see the U18 & OCK-2 still in your sig - do you find they improve the Wandla also? Also, while I’m at it, I note a couple of Tubulus Concentus cables… how do you find em, recommended?
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CFGamescape
500+ Head-Fier
I haven’t tried the Wandla without the U18 and OCK-2, but the main purpose of having the U18 is to take advantage of I2S. I have posted in the past that the combination of those devices and cables have made a notable difference. I also am also taking into consideration that it could be a placebo effect. I never bothered to do A/B testing, but took solace that my chain was as good as I was willing to make it.
I have noticed that the Tubulus Concentus I2S cable did make a difference. I couldn't tell the difference between the BNC clock cables, though.
I plan on replacing the U18 + OCK 2 with the Matrix Audio Element S streamer/DDC.
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