Advice on a new 256 or 512 DSD DAC

[Quadman]

+1 on Randy's comments. The Gustard is way above it's price point in SQ. In fairness I have not heard the Mytek Brooklyn, Exasound E22 or the T&A dac 8. I do have some experience with very hi end analog and the Gustard at DSD128 OR 256 does somethings better than hi end analog does. I have been unable to get the Gustard to playback DSD512 as I2S is the only way to get 512 to play and currently there is not a ready to go DDC that matches the Gustards I2S pin assignments. The unit Randy talks about above is currently available but the price is now $399 and it is only stated to support DSD256.

 

Take a stock gustard, do the full AC mod that Ric lists on his website (tweak audio.com) or send it to Ric and you have one really nice DSD256 and possibly DSD512 dac for WAY less $ then the others you mention. I suspect it will hang or beat all you mention with the possible exception of the T&A. Thou when we figure out DSD512 on the gustard I would love to hear it against the T&A.

[Quadman]

@YashN Thank you for the kind words. I am certainly not an electronics "guy" no EE or anything close. Just someone with some soldering skills and the bravado to go forward, after extensive research, and do what other people have suggested. I recently installed a custom solid silver coax cable that I made into the Gustards I have here. My first attempt on my friends I thought went well until I directly compared to my L1 dac with Ric's Copper coax. The stage was slightly smaller and images lacked that razor focus that my L1 dac had. This is nothing you would notice without comparison to another similar dac. S I reversed the cables direction and WOW a really nice change for the better. The stage became bigger images got that razor 3D focus and the transparency went up a few notches, now punching above my L1 dac with copper coax. Who would have thought a 6.25" solid silver wire carrying a digital signal would be that directional. I sure didn't. Last night I soldered one into mine and got lucky on direction the first time. Yep nice improvement same as noted with my friends.

 

Tuesday I ordered the DSD512 card from DIYinHK and I plan on installing that internally inside the dac, removing the existing the USB card and wiring directly to the PCIe slot as @SimonBromely has done on his X20 with his Wave I/O card. I will power the card from an external linear PSU and if lucky will see if the dac can really do DSD512. If it can, based on my experience, and as reported on forums from other people DSD256>DSD128>DSD64, I then expect DSD512>DSD256. Regardless if the Dac cannot play DSD512, reports from Simon and Ric indicate that the dac sounds significantly better by removing the stock USB card. Simon now uses his Wave I/O card (as input) and Ric runs Coax in and only 16/44 PCM redbook play back. I will come out ahead just by getting that noisy card out of the way.

 

I will report on those changes in a Gustard thread. A Gustard x20u with Ric's level 1 mods is $1300 ($870 dac + $425 mod) plus shipping to and from him. With the stock driver you get DSD128, and with a few other drivers you can get DSD256 and I'll stand by my words other than the T&A mentioned above I don't think any other dac will sound better than this X20u anywhere near this price point.