Gustard R26

Hi guys, first post here.

@kairosman I have the R26 and recently became one of those guys with a couple of inline switches. I found inserting a modestly priced Netgear GS108E (albeit Alpha Audio recommended) upstream of my already very good LHY SW-8 gave a nice improvement in soundstage focus and tightened up the bass of my R26-based system. I have yet to try FMCs but have found the R26 LAN input / renderer (I use its HQPlayer NAA) very sensitive to and able to resolve all upstream ethernet chain improvements I've made. This includes for e.g. adding Quartz Acoustics grounding boxes on my server, switches and router. I have a couple of Ifi LAN iSilencers (galvanic isolator & USB regenerator) on order to further optimise things after some early very positive feedback from a few folk with already well sorted systems.

I concur that adding a decent clock like the LHY OCK-2 to the R26 lifts it to another level, particularly when used with a high quality clock cable like the 50 ohm Harmonic Technology DC III or better. When the R26 LAN input is selected I understand a connected masterclock will be used by the R26 to clock both its renderer and DAC sections. This may explain in part why I find the sound of R26's HQP renderer superior to that of DDCs I own like the U18 and SU6, even when the U18 is also externally clocked.

Enjoying my r26(stock)  recently paired with inuos pulse mini for streaming. 

Sounds better for most everything, but still like the delta sigma sound for certain types of music.

And now that I have the pulse mini, it os easy to switch between the two dacs. (And qobuz/tidal/stored)

@kereru understood, but why would Gustard only have the LAN input fully utilize a Masterclock signal? What is the logic of that? So the I2S is simply slaved to the DDC's clock and ignores the Masterclock I spent $700 on? 

@kairosman With respect I didn’t say the R26 uses an external clock to reclock its DAC section only with the LAN input selected but that when the LAN input is used it also reclocks its streamer/renderer section. So it’s just there’s a there’s a dual benefit in my use case.

I’ve verified through careful AB’ing (ext clock on/off toggling) that the R26 does audibly benefit from an R26-connected external clock when fed I2S or S/pdif from the SU6 or U18, irrespective of whether DSD Direct or PCM NOS is on or off. From recollection others on Headfi found the same with the R26 and the other Gustard *26 DACs that share the K2 clock synthesiser.

@kereru sorry my mistake for misconstruing what you said. BTW I've heard from more than one person that LAN and USB are clocked in the DAC while SPDIF AES I2S are clocked by the streamer/server. I have yet to come across a clear, precise and comprehensive description of a DAC's operation, have you?