Joined in 2023 
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63 About this deal
I’ve ditched off-line music listening around three years ago, as streaming became a lot more convenient and more importantly, it sounds as good if you’re using the right format. My favorite streaming platform at the moment is Qobuz, as for my rusty ears it sounds better than other services I’ve tried in the past. Qobuz offers music in a lossless 24-bit 192 kHz PCM format and that’s more than enough for me. The module board that can be removed is dedicated for the Heahphone and comes with 2 OP amps 4580. Out of the box, it sounds awesome already ! DACs: Gustard X16, Gustard X26 PRO, Matrix Audio Element X, Audiobyte HydraVox + HydraZap, Flux Lab Acoustics FCN-10
Among the accessories, a remote, a USB cable, a power cable and an anthem, together with a guarantee card (with serial number). I nice touch. In the headphone setup, it was mostly connected to the Benchmark HPA4 driving several high-end planar-magnetic headphones and a bunch of dynamic headphones. Okay folks, enough with the talk, my ears are itching for some music, so let’s hit some ear-drums! The source used for the testing was a Raspberry Pi 4 with a HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro board for better digital quality through coaxial and optical outputs, running Volumio (Virtuoso subscription), using local samples files and TIDAL. Unfortunately the MQA streams some times are not correctly identified and play as normal PCM files using optical and coaxial inputs. Could also be a problem with Volumio, as to get DSD proper flagged I need to select DSD over PCM – DoP, but no option for MQA. Off course DSD is limited to DSD64 on these inputs. Thus, to fully assess the potential of MQA and DSD, the USB output was used most of the time. I also noticed that the EM6L is quite dependent on the source material and the DAC amp connected to it. When I connect it with my Moondrop Moonriver 2 Ti, the mids and trebles are a bit smoother and more forgiving. Whereas with my Fiio Q3, songs with bad recordings or sibilant sounds come through as such. With the Xenns Top, either connected with Moonriver 2 Ti or Fiio Q3, songs with bad recording or sibilant in nature do not sound as bad as they are. I2S : PCM up to 32bit 768kHz, Native DSD up to DSD512, DSD DoP up to DSD512, MQA hardware rendering
HDMI I2S-H Pinout
In some ways I’d describe the Gustard as pretty “workaday” – it doesn’t do anything wrong, but it doesn’t connect me with the music like my other DACs. For me, it is missing that certain something that’s really hard to quantify. NOS MODE: 2 positions. ON or OFF. In its OFF position, it will work as a regular oversampling DAC and on its ON position, there is no digital oversampling, acting as an old-school Non- Over- Sampling DAC (NOS). If you want a smoother top end and a warmer sound, then enable its NOS mode Combined with my Hypex NC252MP / David Munyon HD Playlist it is really close to my Gustard X16 and just noticed a lower gain. Anyway : I willl test with my favorite HD Audio Playlist soon.
Hardfloor’s Trancesript has the 303 sounding like a 303 but without quite the bite I’m used to and with the Gustard failing to capture the raspiness of the little silver acid box. It’s there, but it feels a little bit sterile and flat when compared to the other DACs we have to hand. I can still enjoy the music, and were I not such a critical person, or perhaps had I not being spoiled by having such great kit at my disposal, the Gustard would have served my needs very well – and in many ways, I think this is how to look at the X16. It’s a good sounding DAC that produces music without leaving much out, but doesn’t really excite and give that connection to the music you are listening to – perhaps the DACs further up the Gustard chain are able to offer more in this regard. What was quite amazing is that several amplifiers that aren’t known to be impressive when it comes to bass delivery and speed, X26 PRO awoke them from their deep sleep, giving a huge helping hand and the same can be said about mellow sounding headphones and loudspeakers. The best of Gustard with its overkill capacitance would infuse more positive vibes, more uplifting beats, that would cure even slow and boring setups. If you really need more slam, more body and a faster pace…I think I found a cure for the boringness of your setup. High Resolution Decoder: The USB processing module of GUSTARD DAC-X16 uses USB Audio dedicated chip XMOS XU216, and supports up to 384K, DSD512, PCM768K. It might look raw and unpolished around the edges, but it’s not really the case (Audio-GD units are mostly like that), its corners and edges are sanded on a small scale, so it wouldn’t damage your expensive headphones while handling them around. It has a flushed On/Off button, its menu is cleverly designed, looking almost invisible in a dark environment. Its monochrome OLED screen is quite big, a bigger font was also used, so you can easily read it from afar in a loudspeaker setup. It has several brightness levels which makes it even more versatile to be used in late night listening sessions. NOS MODE: 2 positions, it’s either ON or OFF. In OFF position it will work as a regular oversampling DAC and with its ON position, there is no digital oversampling, acting as an old-school Non- Over- Sampling DAC (NOS). If you want a smoother top end and a warmer sound, then enable its NOS mode
In my home system, most of my listening is done with my Magneplanar LRS quasi-ribbon loudspeakers, which can tend to sound, perhaps, a bit bright with certain material. My other go-to loudspeakers, the Zu Audio Omens, use compression drivers in what is essentially a treble horn arrangement, and they also tend to sound a bit bright. So, there’s that dynamic I must deal with in trying to make an objective decision on how oversampling might be affecting what I’m hearing through the Gustard X16. That tendency towards brightness of both of my loudspeaker choices might be impacting what I’m hearing with oversampling engaged in Roon when played through the X16. I might feel (or hear) differently if the oversampling was done by HQ Player rather than Roon, but I don’t currently have full access, so for now, it’s a moot point. I plan on doing more serious listening in the near future, and try to reach some sort of consensus on how I feel about using oversampling with Roon and the X16. The
It is important to know that its digital section is powered by a 50W linear, regulated and encapsulated toroidal transformer and they put another one for its analog section. I personally don’t hold a lot of respect for forgiving sounding DACs, I personally value non-forgiving sources, that are giving me everything on a plate, it should be my only decision to look and hear all those micro-details, and mastering errors or not. I can count on X16 because it always appeared as detailed and transparent sounding no matter the song. It was so obvious hearing people inhaling and exhaling air in their lungs, fingers touching musical instruments, low-level notes and air casually passing around in well-mastered music. This will be a very short chapter as pretty much all the newest DACs are already very impressive when it comes to repelling mains noise or any type of noise. I’ve added a Benchmark HPA4 into the chain, which is known to be noiseless with anything I’ve thrown at it, including ultra-sensitive IEMs. Connecting it to a Plixir Elite BAC400 passive power conditioner didn’t change its noise-floor as I couldn’t spot it in any configuration with a pair of IEMs. Putting it in my loudspeaker setup, adding a Topping PRE90 or a Benchmark HPA4 and then a KECES S300 power amplifier, again didn’t add any hiss into the mix. KEF’s UNI-Q drivers were dead silent even after approaching them closely.Depending on where you live, the time it may take for your exchanged product to reach you, may vary. Please allow 3-5 business days for mail-in exchanges to be processed. From my first impressions, compared to my older DAC, it’s clear this is a more resolving DAC, with better dynamics and a wider and deeper sound stage, thus imaging gets a little improved with some instruments floating around de stage. These qualities increase when listening to the same music in MQA and DSD format, were the information about the ambient of the recording, like acoustic recordings in Churches and Chambers, are better reproduced, transporting you to the action place. Comparing the sound using coaxial and optical inputs on both DACs, overall there is an improvement but not a dramatic change, the DAC-9 still a terrific machine! However, when both driven by the USB port, the difference for the X16 is much more evident, as the DAC-9 has a quite outdated USB controller, not able to cope in the same way with the digital stream (recent developments improved and solved many of the problems with noise and jitter from computer USB connections). This difference was already notorious just by comparing both optical inputs and coaxial on DAC-9, with the USB input loosing detail and having a shadier sound. Overall, the biggest difference between X16 and DAC-9 is a shift in to the warmth side of vocals, with a little emphasized bass contributing to a full-bodied vocals, without losing details. The vocal presentation is very clean, but male vocals sound a bit thin to my ears. However, female vocals are really enjoyable on the EM6L. In fact, I would say that female vocals sound even better on this than on the Xenns Top. This DAC is using a dual 9038Q2M chips and fully balanced and also equipped with DIP8 OP amps and removable BT module. It is using the same chips as the Soncoz SGD1 ) At this size, weight and capacitance, it was clear that at least several days of burn-in are needed before I can take it seriously for a long listening session. While I was writing and filming my Musician Andromeda review, the X26 PRO was connected to a balanced headphone amplifier, so that its entire circuit would be used. One week passed, I calmed my spirits and I sat down for a long listening session.
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