Gustard R26


Is anyone else looking forward to the reviews coming out on the Gustard R26 r2rDac? I am interested to see if it can compete with the Holo Spring at a lower price point. How will it stand up to the other r2r dac’s out there right now. It does present well and is feature rich right out of the box. Is it a true proprietary resistor board or is it off the shelf and tweaked? I know the other Gustard equipment is well received and liked so my hopes are high for this as well.

sgreg1

I want to replace with the same streamer with a 50 MHz clock input and get a new DAC with 50 MHz input as well. Or simply forgo SoTM altogether and replace with the Gustard R26 streamer / DAC in one unit.

@zeusodin If going with the R26 I’d suggest getting a DDC (Denafrips Iris, Musician Pisces, Singxer SU-6, etc.) as in addition to re-clocking they also allow you to provide an i2S connection to the DAC, so you’re getting two significant benefits in one.  I added the Iris and using the i2S made a huge difference from running SPDIF without the Iris.  Just my $0.02 FWIW.  

@soix Thanks for the suggestion. I will take this seriously. Are your connections similar to kairosman’s post above? Thank you.

@zeusodin Yes, very. 
 

Wireworld Starlight 7 Ethernet cable > iFi Zen Stream (w/ iPowerX PS) > LavriCables Ultimate Silver Dual USB cable > Denafrips Iris DDC > 6” Monoprice HDMI cable > Musician Pegasus R2R DAC

It’s important to keep the HDMI cable as short as possible as i2S wasn’t designed for distance and will degrade quickly, which is why I got the 6” Monoprice cable as it was the shortest I could find — and also a very cost-effective way to dip my toe in the water.  I’m surprised by the level of performance so don’t feel a rush to upgrade the HDMI cable although I probably will at some point.  I’ve heard from others that the HDMI cable doesn’t seem to make a dramatic impact on the sound, so there’s that. You could still add a separate clock later as most DDCs have clock inputs, but you might not feel the need after hearing what a DDC can do.  Anyway, hope this helps at least somewhat. 

Some guys actually have MULTIPLE switches because they believe reclocking the signal multiple times BEFORE a DDC/clock/DAC stack yields benefits - in this crazy hobby, I wouldn't be the least surprised if that is true lol!

A friend of mine is an integrated circuit designer specializing in network products for decades. I asked and was told that the main thing that happens when chaining switches is that you add latency (bad). So the sound probably changes. One of these audiophile situations where any change is perceived to be good.