Gustard R26

he is a great reviewer, and has a similar taste in sound as me. I have bought a lot of gear based on his reviews and he has been spot on. He is actually the only reviewer that I have any confidence in matching my sonic preferences.

@yyzsantabarbara Ditto, and a big +1 from me. I think he’s one of the best reviewers out there today. And as a reviewer myself I’ve never heard of someone being paid by a manufacturer for writing a review. Reviewers are offered an accommodation pricing discount (basically dealer cost), which is standard, but that’s it (maybe @aquint ​​​and @amorsound could add their thoughts on this too as well-respected and very experienced fellow reviewers) Also, Sandu just doesn’t write like he’s in the bag for anyone — he comes across as very upfront and honest to me. Just my take FWIW.

My take on reviewers is like everything in advertising today. I figure most critics of a reviewer are other reviewers. They are all fighting for status and position. Just like in my business I sell on my merits snd the quality of my product. I come up against many  competitors  who have bad product so not being able to sell on their merits they discredit the competition. A bad reviewer must try to discredit the competition in an effort to make them relevant. Dig into the review snd read the posts that tell you “I bought this unit snd review was spot on happy customer”. Also look for outliers. Example a product that has many positive reviews but one bad one that seems out of place. This tells me there is bias against the company for some reason we don’t know of. Reviews are a starting point not the holy grail for purchase decession!

Keeping my eye on this one. But have learned that you want to see at least 2 credible reviews... one mans meat can be another mans poison. Its at the right price point to compete with Denafrips Pontus.

@davide256

there are a couple more reviews out that are also very favorable. IMO the feature that you can’t over look here is the I2I hdmi port. This will allow anyone to easily upgrade the R26 with an external reclock DDC. I have been looking up the units snd they can be had for hundreds up into stratosphere like everything else. If the base r2r board delivers this will allow for upgrades to keep up with the tech. Will have to wait and see when I get the unit. First delay is ccp shut down now earth quake hit region. Might be my best Christmas present way things are going.

The X26 PRO has been my dac since January and I am completely satisfied with its delta-sigma based chip. I never went up the chain with R2R but the Aries II did not do it for me. With the Gustard, set the filter to gentle and it will bring the sound close to R2R but with so much more details. Set on vivid and even more details but can be overly bright with some recordings. Either way the Gustard X26 PRO offers filter adjustments that give you the best sound no matter the darkness or brightness of a recording. So it makes me think that moving to the R26 would be an insignificant improvement, or lack thereof, from the X26 PRO. I read on another site this guy got both and said if you don't have the PRO, buy the R26, if you do, don't. Good advice.