Gustard R26 new R2R DAC

[davide256]

Any indications of price?  

[davide256]

Looks like it will have an endpoint streamer section, back picture shows wifi and ethernet jacks. If it has remote  volume control, that would

be very nice for a minimalist setup.

 

[davide256]

@GoldenOne hoping you review this one soon 😀  Price point puts it head to head with the Pontus, hopefully it’s clean of linear interpolation 

[davide256]

7 hours ago, GoldenOne said:

Interestingly it does LOOK like the Ares 2 ladder design (though with Gustard's power supply/digital sections and notably output stage, something the Ares 2 doesn't have).

I wouldn't be surprised if this is a similar situation to the Musician Pegasus where the converter design is licensed from denafrips.
I've unfortunately not had the chance to test the Pegasus and don't think I'll be getting one of these in so we'll have to see. I'd be pretty interested to see how it behaves though

I really liked the Ares 2... but the linear interpolation killed it for me as I play mostly 44/16 and the treble roll off in NOS mode was blatant.

[davide256]

2 hours ago, giordy60 said:

for some years I have been using an ares2 with hqp and usually the upsampla software in pcm at 1411/1536 mhz and in dsd at 512
I don't remember ever carrying out a roll-off on the highs (at least I think eh!) .... obviously I use several filters and modulators created by Jussi.
to stay on the subject .... I'm also curious to hear the impressions of the new R2R gustard 

I prefer NOS for correct timbre... if you don't up-sample, the lower the bit rate, the worse the treble roll off with Ares II in NOS mode.

[davide256]

39 minutes ago, botrytis said:

I have an R26 (not the pro version) on order. I will put in my system and see how it sounds, compared to my TEAC DAC.

please let us all know if you find that it has a usable volume control. Gustard is lagging on a posted user manual, and being able to go DAC > XLR direct to amp

would be nice

[davide256]

1 hour ago, EMINENT said:

Gustard sent me the manual upon request.

hope they got to writing it in English 😁

[davide256]

On 7/22/2022 at 12:32 PM, botrytis said:

Here is a pdf of the manual...

5f6470fb8ec18.pdf 1.36 MB · 17 downloads

 

 manual is for X26 ESS chip DAC vs R26 R2R.

[davide256]

16 minutes ago, botrytis said:

So far, it seems the Gustard is a little sharper sounding with more bass extension.

Schmaltz factor? 😁

The 2 R2R's I've tried do better on string instrument and voice timbre but trade off with less treble resolution and sometimes stridency

with massed upper register violins compared to FPGA or ESS chipped DAC's. Good for R. Strauss pieces but not so good for Tchaikowsky pieces

[davide256]

5 minutes ago, botrytis said:

If you can't hear a difference immediately, waiting 300 hours will change nothing.

mmm, I think long break in applies only with discrete manufacturing where you end up up with lots of film capacitors in

the signal path. For solid state devices made with micro soldering techniques all thats needed is to leave it playing

over night, can sound harsh at first listen without some burn in. I did once add some VCaps to a tube pre, they took a

ridiculously long time to break in ~ 4 months. No patience for anything like that again.

[davide256]

1 minute ago, botrytis said:

 

What nonsense. It there is break in, one could measure the difference. No one has shown any data that 'break in' is real.

 

What you are talking about is utter BS.

did you get lost somewhere? this isn't ASR

[davide256]

On 7/27/2022 at 2:24 PM, EMINENT said:

I went through a phase of loose bass, bumping up and tightening Q value with higher low shelf boost and then after backing off. Mood or device changing. I don't know.

Possibly the recording? What were you listening to?

[davide256]

2 hours ago, EMINENT said:

Nah.. Same test tracks I always use. I also noticed through the days a weird effect in HQP to my favorite sinc MX filter so I had to explore others. I really liked MX on the X26, with the softness and more spread out R26, it lost the mid forwardness I had become use to.

 

Just a few...

 

Charli XCX - Move Me

Charli XCX - ILY2

Bassbin Twins - Way Out

Santero - Drop The Bomb Feat. Credit To The Nation (Deekline vs. Product 01 Remix)

And you were using HQP in NOS mode? Some DAC designers are calling output NOS even though  they have added processing. I was corrected on that with Soekris

( upsampled R2R) and disappointed with the Ares II NOS mode (linear interpolation filter)

[davide256]

8 hours ago, EMINENT said:

Nah.. Same test tracks I always use. I also noticed through the days a weird effect in HQP to my favorite sinc MX filter so I had to explore others. I really liked MX on the X26, with the softness and more spread out R26, it lost the mid forwardness I had become use to.

 

Just a few...

 

Charli XCX - Move Me

Charli XCX - ILY2

Bassbin Twins - Way Out

Santero - Drop The Bomb Feat. Credit To The Nation (Deekline vs. Product 01 Remix)

Was able to give a listen to Charli XCX. and Santero. Bass is mostly electronic so maybe not the best for demoing NOS ( did really well though with Chord Mojo). You might want to try something like Hamilton musical which is pretty dynamic also but uses more acoustical instruments, shows off timbre abilities better

[davide256]

Anyone try this DAC yet using it as a UPNP endpoint?

[davide256]

15 minutes ago, Dandou said:

Their cable is an I2S cable, though it can be used for an HDMI connection. 

It's the only I2S cable that my supplier (Audiophonics) has in its catalog, all the other are HDMI cables. 

There is no standard pin out agreement for i2s. Best to refer to @gmgravesarticle on a device to remap pin out as needed

[davide256]

19 hours ago, bodiebill said:

 

Link please?

 

Although my issue will not be solved by remapping as it is about the source device not sending a specific signal on any pin that the DAC is expecting on pin 14 or 15.

 

 

[davide256]

6 hours ago, bodiebill said:

 

Just got confirmation ftom SMSL that neither an SMSL VMV D2 will play DSD via I2S from an Audio-gd DI-20HE (as I already found out): "Confirmed with engineer, it is not suitable with D2. And we suggest you use with USB input."

Sounds like the wrong decision if you are prioritizing "native DSD over I2S" over "native SQ".  Does DSD over DOP not work with I2S?

[davide256]

@botrytis hows the treble response for CD rate recordings in NOS mode? Does it have the roll-off that Denafrips DAC's have or does it have

normal sparkle on cymbals and piccolo?

[davide256]

7 hours ago, stefano_mbp said:

 

 

The R26 grows more enticing. Must resist... at least until after I've gone to CAF this year 🙂

 

Being able to bypass USB or external DDC via UPNP or HQPe to NAA  streaming could be very nice as long as the CPU for the endpoint board

isn't under equipped for the job. What I fear is that the network section will be like other endpoint devices I've used {Oppo 103, microRendu, Atom PC} where

the sound is very clean but treble and transients lose resolution compared to USB out from the server.

[davide256]

12 hours ago, Currawong said:

 

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

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

[davide256]

On 11/11/2022 at 6:39 PM, Currawong said:

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.

how engaging is it with HQP for mid range timbre and intonation? Used to think HQP was something that improved technical detail at the expense of mid range bleaching, which is what happened with Chord Mojo and Metrum Octave. But using HQP with a Cayin RU6 has been a different experience, timbre and intonation are preserved or improved. 

[davide256]

On 12/3/2022 at 9:59 AM, Qstik said:

Yes, I ordered directly from ShenzhenAudio at the Black Friday price + free shipping on Nov. 28.  I received it 4 days later via DHL in the Detroit area !!!  Not a single mark on the package.

 

It's burning in right now, but so far, it already sounds fabulous over I2S compared to my Metrum Onyx with updated DAC3 modules.  Settings are:  PCM Filter "Mid" , PCM NOS "ON" , DSD Direct "ON"

Thanks for your post! Still have a Metrum Octave that a Denafrips Ares II couldn't unseat so if you prefer it to the later model Metrum Onyx, that says quite a lot.

[davide256]

 

 

13 hours ago, mocenigo said:

 

What? Mojo cannot do NOS. It will always oversample internally.

are we punctuation challenged?

"Parentheses and brackets are punctuation marks used to set apart certain words and sentences. Parentheses, ( ), are used to add extra information in text,"

[davide256]

6 hours ago, mocenigo said:

Here you look challenged. You wrote

 

«Bass is mostly electronic so maybe not the best for demoing NOS ( did really well though with Chord Mojo). »

 

which can easily be read to imply that “despite being NOS the Mojo performed well.”

 

I can read. Maybe you should learn to write better.

@The Computer Audiophile this fellows penchant for  hostility doesn't look promising for long term membership