Gustard R26

@whart I have the X26 Pro and took advantage of the Black Friday Sale to buy the R26 which came Thursday.  I hooked it up to my LAN and Roon recognized it without any problems.  I burned it in for about 36 hours before I listened to it this evening. The X26 is connected to Roon through a Denafrips Iris DDC and a Raspberry Pi connected to an Etherregen.  The R26 is just plugged into an ordinary ethernet cable connected to the same router as the X26.

So first impressions are basically WOW.  It is a significantly different sound from the X26.  I will need to spend more time listening critically to make sure that first impression holds but the R26 has a lot more presence, much bigger dynamics, and quite a bit more top end definition which surprised me.  In many ways it sounds more like vinyl.  Only downside so far is that midrange vocals might be marginally less weighty.  

I was prepared for the differences to be much smaller, especially since I bought the X26 Pro at the same time as I got a Pontus II and I tore my hair out for 6 weeks trying to hear any differences and decide which one to keep.  The difference between the X26 and R26 is immediately apparent.  I'll report back after my first blush of enthusiasm wears off and let you know if I still prefer sound of the R26.

@pinwa

Give the r26 more burn in time before being too critical. The first real sign of what this dac can accomplish will come in at 100 hours. Then after 200 hours it will be in full stride. Mids for vocals will be in the room with you, bass will be tight and punch you in the gut, highs will sound fantastic with a very little roll off and I mean very little to the point you have to strain to notice. I do not like to make the “like vinyl” comparisons, what I like most with my r26 is I have to drag my self away. I can spend hours at a time listening and the music just flows. You are right with the large sound stage. For me it is like my Vandersteen’s are four time large than before. Dynamics allow you to hear every instrument right in its correct placement. My favorite setting is nos off slow filter through lan input. Down side to this is Currently using mconnect and it sucks, I will be replacing how I access lan very soon.

@pinwa (and @sgreg1) -thank you for the impressions and additional thoughts. Just out of curiosity, when this DAC processes DSD, does it do so through chips rather than r 2 r?

I can’t recall off the top of my head. I am on another thread for the r26 that gives this level of detail. I would post the link but I know agon would pull it. I know the access to the r2r ladder is determined by the input used. Not the sample rate. People adding an external clock will by pass internal clock snd it goes straight to the ladder.

@pinwa

@whart

@whart  I'm guessing @sgreg1  is referring to the thread at Head-Fi which is almost 2300 posts long.  Many of the posts are fairly technical so that might be a better place to ask your question about DSD.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the R26 changes with more burn in.  I was just excited about how it sounded after only 36 hours.