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Gustard A26

Has anyone here heard the Gustard A26 and compared it to other Gustard DACs, in particular the R26? I find the R26 has some remarkable qualities in terms of microdynamics, musicality (musical details), but poor quality control and among the 4 R26's I listened to, all had (different) tonal balance problems.

Maybe the A26 would be a solution. I'm using a 10 MHz clock (the Gustard C16) and a good clock cable, along with the U18 DDC to feed the DAC through a very good Coax cable. This sounds a lot better than the USB input.

magon
tubeguy80
82 posts
 

I've tried a few Gustard DACs over the years, including the A26 recently. They all seemed nice but had some sort of major bug or malfunction to where each one got returned. One was DOA and its replacement had major issues too. I don't know if I'm just unlucky or what. 

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,114 posts
 

Very easy to believe there are inconsistencies between same model DACs…i.e. R26. These are, after all, made in China sold on amazon cheap low quality garbage stuffed with attractive features.
What is hard to believe though is how persistent one can be in a desire to obtain an imaginary perfect copy. After trying several and concluding they’re not good, just move on dude. You think you’re going to hit a literal and stumble upon one that accuse sounds like MSB Reference? If Denafrips made a DAC with streamer, MQA, wifi, display, etc. and it sounded good, it would have a starting price of $6,000. Forget this junk. Get something that’s made to high standards.

tubeguy80
82 posts
 

@audphile1 Haha I agree, total glutton for punishment I guess. In my defense this was over the course of maybe 5 years, so trying one every 12-18 months is not so bad. Also in context I tried quite a few other DACs during that time frame, ranging from cheap Topping "measurement queens" to big Lampizator tube devices.

I generally agree you get what you pay for, more or less, but sometimes the little flavor of the month stuff can be nice in a way. 

sls883
378 posts
 

Below is a link to a forum post that asked the same question.

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/comparisons-gustard-a26-vs-r26-discrete-dac.968200/

 

I don’t consider Gustard to be poor quality junk. Nor do a lot of other happy owners. There have been a few recent posts from guys that had issues.  Prior to that, I’d only read positive comments. I would suggest that you look for other reviews.

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,114 posts
 

@sls883 it’s all relative. It’s good compared to what? Considering the number of these DACs sold and the success rate of just one user reporting discrepancies in sound quality I stand by my previous assessment.

@tubeguy80 yeah the flavor of the month. Think about how that usually evolves. Bargain and miracle seekers splurge on a $1500 DAC based on hype from other bargain and miracle seekers. The baseline is unknown and the bar is low. Let’s not lose sense of reality here. Lol

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