Gustard R26


Is anyone else looking forward to the reviews coming out on the Gustard R26 r2rDac? I am interested to see if it can compete with the Holo Spring at a lower price point. How will it stand up to the other r2r dac’s out there right now. It does present well and is feature rich right out of the box. Is it a true proprietary resistor board or is it off the shelf and tweaked? I know the other Gustard equipment is well received and liked so my hopes are high for this as well.

sgreg1

I am interested in how this R2R sounds. I owned the X26 Pro and wrote a lot about how much I liked it on A'gon. I sold the X26 Pro to fund the purchase of the Musetec 005. I like the 005 more than the X26 Pro but I wish I had kept the X26 Pro, it had a warmer tone than the other DACs I have and that is helpful with some of my gear.

Side note to all here. It is refreshing to have an open dialogue on this subject that is void from overly opinionated people who think their stuff is the beat all end all and the rest of us know nothing. This conversation is what brought me to the the site to begin with and I am very thankful for the input all that have added so far. 
thank you all for restoring my faith in this format!

@davide256 

read the article and do want to send out word of caution to all. Gustard is very clear that users do not plug a standard hdmi into an I2S port.  The author does not make that clear snd would hate for someone to blow out their dac connecting to what they thought was hdmi across the board!

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You guys need to relax. Plugging a standard hdmi cable into a Gustard is not gonna hurt.anything. It's not the cable that is different, it's the plugs at each end. The Gustard has a smaller number of connectivity than a regular hdmi because it doesn't need to offer video. You can find the exact schematic of it at very bottom of the X26 PRO page at the Chinese authorized dealer. I sent that to Alvin when I wanted to connect to the Jay's before I bought the gustard. He in turn asked the main guy at Jay's if it would work with the gustard. Answer: exactly the same design. Prior to that I bought the PS Audio perfect wave CD transport and had to return it since plugging it into the I2s of the Gustard resulted in nothing but a distant faint distorted signal.  So far using audioquest carbon 48 hdmi and wireworld silver 7 hdmi between gustard and jay's. Both work well but I like the AQ best, clearer and more presence.