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Post by MartinT on Sept 1, 2021 16:45:43 GMT
The DACThe Gustard arrived very well packed indeed, with typical Chinese layers of bubble-wrap and plastic before getting to the box itself. The unit is beautifully finished in brushed aluminium sheen which appears far nicer than the black finish, which looks monolithic and featureless by comparison. However, the black remote control is plastic and utilitarian, a far cry from the hewn-from-metal finish of the LKS remote. It came without batteries, which seems to be a thing now. The DAC is smaller than the LKS but heavy, feeling every bit of its 7kg weight and made from thick aluminium plate, nicely bolted together. I understand it runs fairly warm, so it's going to take several hours to warm up let alone fully burn in.   I've left it running with continuous music to put at least a few hours on it before listening.
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Post by MartinT on Sept 1, 2021 16:46:06 GMT
Specifications
The Gustard website is a mess of untranslated Chinese and bits of English. While the A22 is mostly in English, the X26 Pro is mostly not! I found these specifications on the Shenzhen Audio distributor's site.
Inputs and Sample Rates
COAX ：PCM 16-24bit/44.1-192kHz；DSD DOP64
AES ：PCM 16-24bit/44.1-192kHz；DSD DOP64
OPT ：PCM 16-24bit/44.1-192kHz；DSD DOP64
USB ：PCM 16-32bit/44.1-768kHz；DSD DOP64-DOP256；NATIVE DSD：DSD64-DSD512; MQA
IIS-H ：PCM 16-32bit/44.1-768kHz；DSD DOP64-DOP256；NATIVE DSD：DSD64-DSD512
BT Bluetooth 5.0 : PCM LDAC, AAC, SBC, APTX, APTX LL, APTX HD and other high frequency encoding, LDAC can achieve 24B / 96K high code transmission
Analog Outputs
Amplitude frequency response：20-20kHz /+-0.1 dB
DNR： >128dB
Crosstalk：-140dB @ 1kHz
THD+N：<=0.0001% @1khz
IMD：<0.0006% @-1dBFs
RCA Output level：2.5Vrms (VOLUME 00dB)
Output impedance 100 ohms
XLR Output level：5Vrms (VOLUME 00dB)
Output impedance 100 ohms
Other
AC Power supply：AC 115V/230V 50/60Hz
Power consumption：<60W
Dimensions：Width 330mm * Height 65mm * Depth 260mm（Excluding protrusions）
Weight：7Kg (including packaging)
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Post by MartinT on Sept 1, 2021 16:46:22 GMT
Features
- ESS9038Pro chipset in dual mono configuration
- PCM up to 768kHz
- DSD up to DSD512
- K2 synthesiser synchronous 10MHz femtoclock
- Bluetooth 5.0 LDAC via CSR8675 chip
- External 10MHz clock input
- Analog Devices SHARC digital filter with Vivid, Gentle and Composite settings
- MQA decoding via USB
The display shows input, sampling rate and volume as standard. The font used is small and it is annoyingly hard to read volume from across the room.
A menu shows the following settings:
- PCM filter
- DSD filter
- Clock Int/Ext
- NOS (non-oversampling) mode
- Phase invert
- Display brightness
The PCM filter uses the Gustard custom settings of Vivid (looks like linear phase), Gentle (looks like minimum phase), Composite (looks like hybrid or apodising).
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Post by julesd68 on Sept 1, 2021 17:09:11 GMT
Excellent, I hope it lives up to expectations!
Did you buy from Shenzhen Audio? I've had good dealings with them in the past ...
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Post by wannarock2 on Sept 1, 2021 17:41:33 GMT
Don’t forget the firmware check! Otherwise you will get a rastafarian slow roll-off EDIT: with the wrong firmware (chart below) is the PCM filter roll-off. ALL FILTERS ROLL-OFF combined.   |
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Post by John on Sept 1, 2021 17:51:42 GMT
I hope you are enjoying the DAC in the review I read that it sounded good straight away
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Post by MikeMusic on Sept 1, 2021 18:14:31 GMT
If only it was black !
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Post by MartinT on Sept 1, 2021 18:29:49 GMT
Don’t forget the firmware check! Please remind me how to check the firmware version? Powering up with the central button pressed only gives me a date. |
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Post by MartinT on Sept 1, 2021 18:31:31 GMT
Excellent, I hope it lives up to expectations! Did you buy from Shenzhen Audio? I've had good dealings with them in the past ... No, good old Amazon which then passed my order to Shenzhen. 4 days for delivery takes some beating. Using Amazon gives me some come-back if there is a problem. |
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Post by MartinT on Sept 1, 2021 19:04:38 GMT
Don’t forget the firmware check! Please remind me how to check the firmware version? Powering up with the central button pressed only gives me a date. Further reading suggests the possible bug affects the USB input only. No problem for the time being, I use the AES input. |
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Post by wannarock2 on Sept 1, 2021 19:14:44 GMT
Don’t forget the firmware check! Please remind me how to check the firmware version? Powering up with the central button pressed only gives me a date. Here is the site www.mediafire.com/file/fl0wsavy2bgyn30/GSD_X26P_USB_FW_UPDATA_1A.zip/fileOut of this zip file find the – ‘Gustard_UsbAudio_v5.0.0_setup.exe’ Install program > Connect USB cable between x26p and computer > Go to Info Tab in program > verify vF.1A is the version oops - did not know you were using AES input, my bad |
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Post by MartinT on Sept 1, 2021 20:29:31 GMT
Listening - Early Impressions
I let the X26 Pro run for a couple of hours, just sufficient to warm the case up. It is sat on four Black Ravioli Big Pad feet (bypassing the Gustard feet) on an Electric Beach S1NX shelf. Power comes from a PS Audio P3 regenerator via a Coherent 6D power cable. Data comes from a Mutec MC-3+ USB via a Canare DA206 AES cable. Outputs are via XLR to Coherent 6D cables direct to the power amp. There is a Quartz Acoustic grounding box connected to the unused co-ax input ground. I'm using the Gustard digital volume control around the -12 to -15dB area. The filter is set to Gentle until I get a better handle on their sound.
Playing some music from Qobuz, my very first impressions are of an extremely extended and fine-grained treble. There's about an octave of additional detail over what the LKS presented to me, fantastic bells, chimes and instrument harmonics that really make great use of my Usher's beryllium tweeters. My second thoughts were that, despite presenting this plethora of high frequency detail, the Gustard suffers from none of the slight harshness in the LKS' upper frequency spectrum. There is no sign of the ESS IMD 'hump' created in early designs through poor implementation and lack of thermal control.
The scale of fine detail, the shape of notes and transients is at a level higher than I think I've ever heard from digital replay. This is definitely not at the sacrifice of musicality - it really does sound gorgeous.
The soundstage is already as good as the LKS in terms of width and depth and I expect this may improve somewhat after a week of burn-in. Note decay and other ambient cues are all in place and music is projected from a dimensional space rather than from nothing.
Bass is extended but overall power, slam and punch are down compared with the LKS. Again, I'm hoping this will fully develop over a few days of constant play. The sound signature, if I can call it that, is somewhere in between the LKS' slightly cool perspective, and the A22's warmer viewpoint. This is pretty much exactly how I expected it to sound.
I won't say any more for now. I'll give it 24 hours of constant play before the next listen.
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Post by wannarock2 on Sept 1, 2021 20:40:00 GMT
wait until you get to the vivid filter  regarding burn-in i found that it took about 4-5 listening sessions (each at least 4 hours) to really sweeten (your mileage may very). maybe it is just psychoacoustic brain burn-in. |
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Post by MartinT on Sept 1, 2021 20:42:43 GMT
oops - did not know you were using AES input, my bad No problem, thanks for the info. I'll bring my tablet and a USB cable to the room tomorrow and install the software to check the version. |
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Post by MartinT on Sept 2, 2021 6:47:44 GMT
Listening - Bluetooth
I also had a quick session with Bluetooth last night, in order to replicate the amazing sound quality I heard with John's A22. It was very straightforward: selected BT input on the X26 Pro. Turned on BT on my Android tablet, found and paired to 'Gustard'. Selected LDAC and HDAudio settings.
I tried a live piano concerto with Martha Argerich and a gig with Nils Lofgren on YouTube, being careful to turn the BT audio volume to 100% on the tablet so that all volume is controlled by the X26 Pro. The display in both (all?) cases shows 96kHz.
The results were as amazing as with the A22. It's hard to believe that such sound quality can be achieved by streaming wi-fi via tablet out to BT. I heard a very nice wide soundstage with considerable detail while being able to watch the simultaneous video from my listening position.
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Post by MartinT on Sept 2, 2021 6:51:21 GMT
wait until you get to the vivid filter As you have an X26 Pro, please feel free to add your own operational experiences and thoughts on sound quality. |
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Post by MartinT on Sept 2, 2021 6:58:06 GMT
Two niggles so far: the display font is too small for me to see the volume setting, meaning I have to stoop forwards and squint from my listening position. Secondly, the remote is a poverty plastic model and looks so close to my PS Audio remote that I've picked up the wrong one twice already! Compare with the gorgeous metal LKS one.  |
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Post by John on Sept 2, 2021 7:07:02 GMT
Listening - BluetoothI also had a quick session with Bluetooth last night, in order to replicate the amazing sound quality I heard with John's A22. It was very straightforward: selected BT input on the X26 Pro. Turned on BT on my Android tablet, found and paired to 'Gustard'. Selected LDAC and HDAudio settings. I tried a live piano concerto with Martha Argerich and a gig with Nils Lofgren on YouTube, being careful to turn the BT audio volume to 100% on the tablet so that all volume is controlled by the X26 Pro. The display in both (all?) cases shows 96kHz. The results were as amazing as with the A22. It's hard to believe that such sound quality can be achieved by streaming wi-fi via tablet out to BT. I heard a very nice wide soundstage with considerable detail while being able to watch the simultaneous video from my listening position. Yes YouTube is where the real magic happens with Bluetooth. I hear a difference changing to 88.2 and 24 bit just a touch smoother so have a play around with it and see what works for you. But watching a great live performance and hearing it sound so good is a great experience. |
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Post by John on Sept 2, 2021 7:09:54 GMT
I think it converts Bluetooth in the software. They have done an amazing job with this
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Post by John on Sept 2, 2021 7:17:59 GMT
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📶NAS > Gustard x26p DAC > Benchmark LA4 Pre-Amp > NAD M22-V2 Amplifier > Revel F228Be Speakers
