GUSTARD A26 DAC MQA Dual AK4499EX AK4191 With Streamer/Renderer XMOS DSD512 PCM768K MQA384K IIS Balanced Audio Decoder Black

Product Information

While this unit completely discards over-sharpness and remaining traces of listening fatigue, it never discards bits of information … I did a 'w' in MBR mode (didn't seem to do anything) and then 'r' to return to GPT mode and then 'w' to write and exit. On exit, it output:

Treble is the standard ESS Sabre affair, without the usual glare and brightness associated with this chipset. It goes sky high, there are as many details as you please, it just breathes in the treble. You will not find nasty pre or post-ringing in the treble. Its timing its perfect and it never appeared as harsh or bright sounding to me. The interesting part is that X26 PRO was always connected to a Benchmark HPA4 that is straight as a line and doesn’t awake as many emotions, it can even transform several sources into bright ones, but that never happened, even for a micro-second with the Gustard unit. I’m glad to tell you that it pairs very well with lean and linear setups, you can easily use it bright setups too. It worked with warm sounding setups, I personally used several Class-A amplifiers and it worked great with all of them. Keep in mind that you can also alter its voicing a little bit, by the help of its digital filters and NOS modes. The third and last room houses the digital-to-analog conversion stage and the analog output stage in the upper part of the board. Its output stage was crafted mostly from discrete devices such as diodes and transistors, which could have unlimited potential in the hands of a skilled engineer. The current-to-voltage (I/V) conversion stage seems to be a hybrid one, employing tens of discrete devices and an op-amp per channel.The shiny dual AK4499EX DAC chips of the A26 may seem extravagant considering the additional discrete AK4191 chip it comes with but doubling up on chip count isn’t reserved for high-end gears. Both devices used as DACs offer a bit of flexibility to the sound just to tease. The A26 however is more detail oriented which becomes its crucial advantage if all the bells and whistles of the NEO Stream can be ignored.

PCM Filter – You can choose between six digital filters provided by AKM, which are working on the hardware level. The first one sounds the most accurate, while the Super Slow Roll-Off filter sounds the most natural to my ears. Some of them are sounding quite similar and the differences are subtle at best. More on the grills adorning the sides, the silver color option does help it pop more. And, the almost closed-off internals of the A26 breathes through the slim slits carefully hidden on its upper portion. The final difference was felt in the frequency response. Imagine looking at a beautiful photo made by a renowned artist on a high-end film camera and then comparing it with a sharp high-resolution digital photo. This is what I felt when comparing both units. A26 felt sharper sounding, with notes popping in and out faster. With all that being said, R26 was always beautiful sounding and quite magical as well. It can work better with bright recordings & electronics. A26 will spread its wings with neutral or warm-sounding upstream equipment, while R26 can work with all and everything. The colors were more vibrant on R26, getting a more relaxed treble delivery along the way, something that A26 was doing to a lesser degree. I still find A26 quite velvety sounding especially when put against smaller devices, but there wasn’t as much refinement as it was via R26. I’m dealing with a 10 out of 10 bass slam and impact, with a 9.5 out of 10 speed and decay of the notes – a point where X26 PRO sounded by a hair faster. Still for an R-2R DAC getting a lightning-fast speed and decay? I’m taking my hat off; it was masterfully done!

LPF is specifically designed for the AK4499EX using discrete devices. The final parameters of the circuit are adjusted with subjective listening. Different from ICs, discrete circuits provide the possibility to control every detail in sound and performance. But the parasitic effects introduced huge challenges to the development experience and the device's quality. The cool thing here is the friendlier upper midrange that plays well with the bright ATH-ADX5000. Also, turning to bass lines and synths, the roomier and more capable oomph doesn’t ruin the balance as it stays close to neutrality. Select Comparisons SMSL SU-10 Technical I couldn't find anything...in the manual...other than... keep the volume at 0db and it by pass the attenuator

Problem solved. I was working on a MacBook and it was a bug. I started a linux virtual machine and everything went great. A post from the R26 thread where a user says he exchanged his R26 for a A26, which he prefers because is sounds a bit more airy and resolving: While these are quite different sounding, it would be a horrible idea to swap one with the other. These are honestly more alike than different, their tonality is similar, yet different at the same time. I’ll break it down into smaller sections, so you can better understand their performance.In the end, A26 felt like a better unit when pointing out the location of every instrument, while pushing the sounds somewhat closer versus the R26. I love them both for what they are and if you already own any of these, it will be foolish to side-grading to the second unit, unless you need a second DAC. Noteworthy for being far sounding, the A26 reproduces the lightest of notes with pinpoint accuracy. Instruments get a nice canvas to play around in, with the only caveat that the height is on the reserved side.