Gustard R26

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?

usb connection allows the receiving dac unit to provide the clock timing

spdif transmission is just the reverse, clock signal is sent by the sending unit as ’master’ and the receiving unit can only be the ’slave’

lan standards can vary, but timing info is usually part of the packet data sent -- of course the receiving can reclock the data once received