Gustard R26 new R2R DAC

[Currawong]

 

Just arrived from Shenzen Audio. Quite nice out of the box through an Audio-gd Master 9 and DCA Expanse headphones.

[Currawong]

On 11/7/2022 at 3:28 AM, davide256 said:

Do let us know how it compares to your Hugo 2. 🙂

I've been mainly comparing it to the Audio-gd R-27HE. It's a very "clean" sounding DAC. The network input seems to be the go for best sound if not using i2s.  I wish it had the NAA daemon installed -- maybe I can hack it in? It's definitely a good candidate for HQPlayer PCM up-sampling.

[Currawong]

It'd be interesting to compare DSD256 output from both DACs. I wonder if the simpler system in the R26 has an advantage.

 

I just noticed that there's new firmware, which someone posted a link to on HF. It's for the body, not the streamer:

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/qwq9ih7azboh55y/Gustard_R26_CT_m2.1_via_type-C.zip/file

It makes the menu more readable, from what I've seen so far.

[Currawong]

On 11/14/2023 at 8:56 PM, Miska said:

 

Just digital one, AFAIK. If you use DSD Direct with HQPlayer, then the DAC doesn't have volume control.

 

I recall it having an analog control down to -30 dB then digital below that. I’m going from memory though. 

[Currawong]

14 hours ago, botrytis said:

 

Bit perfect playback prevents the volume control from being used on an R-26, whether it be FALC or DSD files.

I found what it was I was thinking of -- the -30dB attenuator setting, about which the manual states: 

 

Quote

When there is no independent pre-amp, the DAC is directly connected to high gain amplifier or high-gain active speakers, so it is very likely that a large digital volume attenuation (for example, -40dB) will be used to listen to music at a proper volume, which will bring big impact to the sound quality. This function is designed for this kind of application. When this feature is on, a very good analog attenuator provides a gain of - 30dB. For a global gain of -40 dB, only -10 dB digital attenuation is required when using this function. That provides a much better DNR performance.

So my mistake there.