Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
Out of pure curiosity, I’ve connected the U18 to a much nicer FPGA DAC that I’m using for more than a year. Even if the USB board of Audiobyte’s HydraVox is already state-of-the-art, U18 made the HydraVox tighter sounding, the speed of sound improved tremendously and for some reason, the whole dynamic range felt improved. The bass notes were more playful with U18 in place and drums were more impactful than before. If you want to squeeze the last drop of performance from your DAC, a DDC is mandatory, including the I2S connection that removes all digital receivers from the signal path. NOS MODE: 2 positions. ON or OFF. In its OFF position, it will work as a regular oversampling DAC and on its ON position, there is no digital oversampling, acting as an old-school Non- Over- Sampling DAC (NOS). If you want a smoother top end and a warmer sound, then enable its NOS mode U18 revitalized the X18, it added more soul into my tunes, while improving every single aspect that was good but not great. For all of the reasons combined, I decided continuing my review with the U18 in place and if you’re still using a PC as a transport, then this thing should be mandatory, it’s that good. In the core processor of USB audio (we use XU216), there is an area responsible for volume. We can call it "hardware volume".
On less than perfect recordings, X18 can add some unwanted ringing in the treble and a higher pitch, but after adding the U18 into the chain, it single-handedly removed all traces of grain and listening fatigue. If you even experienced an R-2R ladder DAC or a well-made FPGA DAC (like those of Chord Electronics or Audiobyte), then you already know how real those can sound with acoustic music, as if musical notes are bonded with invisible silk threads. To a certain degree, this is exactly what U18 would be doing to all your DACs. It would add more flow, a bit more air in between the notes, it would further expand the stage, while adding even more refinement and a higher transparency. On entry-level DACs you can experience a lower noise floor and a better detail retrieval, but that isn’t the case with X18, as it’s already exemplary in here. An Altera MAX II FPGA will be isolating the I2S signal, reshaping it by removing traces of jitter introduced by galvanic isolators and last, but no least, a 20W linear transformer will be providing clean and regulated power to all its circuitry. It was able to easily untangle my music, pushing macro and micro-details on the foreground. The usual suspects were in place, rendering them crystal clear and extremely defined. Even bad mastered music sounded impressively clean, as if I was listening to a digital remaster of said records. Connecting X18 to an Enleum AMP-23R that drove a pair Hifiman Susvara was such an eye-opening experience, as words like clinical, boring or bright never appeared on my lips and from an ultra-linear converter, the final outcome was a rich ‘n full-bodied experience, pushing and pulling dynamics like crazy.To return your product, you should mail your product to: 4F 405, Building F, No.2 Shangxue Science and Technology North, Bantian Street, Longgang Dist, ShenZhen, 518129 Guangdong, China Sending music from a smartphone via streaming services as Qobuz and Tidal worked as a charm and LDAC codec sounded almost indistinguishable to its wired connection. Bottom line is that X16 performed very good in here, exactly as good as their top of the line X26 PRO. I did hesitate a long time to switch the X16 with X18. I did not test the X18 but i would bet that X16 is better.
Please keep in mind that these are rough estimates and shipments can be delayed due to unforeseen circumstances, like postal strikes or severe weather. It might look raw and unpolished around the edges, but it’s not really the case (Audio-GD units are mostly like that), its corners and edges are sanded on a small scale, so it wouldn’t damage your expensive headphones while handling them around. It has a flushed On/Off button, its menu is cleverly designed, looking almost invisible in a dark environment. Its monochrome OLED screen is quite big, a bigger font was also used, so you can easily read it from afar in a loudspeaker setup. It has several brightness levels which makes it even more versatile to be used in late night listening sessions. At the heart of the new Gustard X16 a pair of latest ESS Sabre ES9068AS chips, this should allow to provides a very rich and precise reproduction as claims chip manufacturer (THD+N of -120dB and a dynamic range of 128dBA). ES9068AS allow hardware decoding of AQA files and support high-resolution files up to 32bit 768kHz PCM and DSD512.While I was taking the time to explore oversampling via Roon, I thought it might be instructive to take a listen to some MQA titles with the X16, which is made easy by Roon’s built-in access to Tidal. After switching everything in the Euphony System to the Gustard’s USB protocol, I proceeded to sample from a number of MQA offerings. The available selection of MQA titles has recently exploded on Tidal – there’s a boatload of both mainstream and obscure albums across many musical genres. I mostly chose albums I’m very familiar with in either strictly CD-quality versions or higher-resolution PCM versions. I won’t go into detail here, but right out of the gate, 1) I wasn’t completely blown away by any MQA titles I listened to, and 2) I sensed that something in the overall sound quality wasn’t quite right – I can’t put my finger on it, but it didn’t sound completely natural to me. This is going to require much more exploration in the very near future, but suffice it to say, for now, I’m still on the fence regarding MQA. DACs: Gustard X26 PRO, Gustard X16, Matrix Audio Element X, Audiobyte HydraVox + HydraZap, Flux Lab Acoustics FCN-10
Great Deal 
New Comment