Joined in 2023 
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My system is both audiophile and home theatre and i often switch between optical and usb. Both are consecutive on the input list so it is not difficult to switch even if i cannot read the display. Its side and front plates have rounded edges that won’t trigger my OCD when swapping amplifiers, DACs, cables or headphones around it. I’m confident that I won’t see scratches or dents anytime soon. 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. Out of pure curiosity, I’ve connected the U18 to a much nicer FPGA DAC that I’m using for more than a year. Even if the USB board of Audiobyte’s HydraVox is already state-of-the-art, U18 made the HydraVox tighter sounding, the speed of sound improved tremendously and for some reason, the whole dynamic range felt improved. The bass notes were more playful with U18 in place and drums were more impactful than before. If you want to squeeze the last drop of performance from your DAC, a DDC is mandatory, including the I2S connection that removes all digital receivers from the signal path.
Brightness: has 8 brightness positions, none of them is completely dimming its display. The lowest position worked great at night though. MQA(Master Quality Authenticated) is the latest sound technology in the industry. In this, high-quality music is written on the empty space of the music files and then folded to reduce the file size. Usually, any normal DAC can play these MQA files but to utilize this technology to its full potential, usage of MQA certified devices is suggested. An MQA enabled device can fully decode and render the MQA files and present all the minute details as they are supposed to. Gustard has equipped the X16 with ES9068AS DAC chips which are the world's first DAC chips to feature an in-built MQA renderer. Bluetooth V5.0 Support:- Next, I connected it to my new Mac Mini M1 with latest Big Sur 11.2 and I can't control the volume of the Gustard X16 from the keyboard no matter what I try in the audio setting. I then tried to search for the Gustard X16 dirver for MAC but unfortunately I can't find any. I then connect my X16 to my Macbook Pro (Intel) on High Sierra and same "no volume control" issue again. Does anybody here have the same issue on their Mac Mini M1 or Macbook Pro (Intel version)? DSD Filter: 4 positions. You are going to select the roll-off of the DSD content, 47K position sound more natural to me. All my tests were done blindly with the help of my beloved that was switching the inputs on the HPA4. The most striking thing to know is that both devices are sounding almost indistinguishably. Both carry the same weight in the bass, both sounds exceptionally open and wide, both have natural decays but also lightning speed when asked for. Their tonalities are very alike, but still…there was a minor difference. X26 Pro was by a hair more organic sounding, its midrange was by a smidge fuller. Acoustic music was always grabbing my soul and that happened less often on the Element X. Gustard unit seems to have a slight advantage when it comes to midrange density. It is by a hair warmer sounding in here and that worked as magic for lean sounding setups. The tone is just bolder and the air is heavier on the X26 PRO, it just feels over-powerful and really effortless sounding with everything I throw at it. In terms of soundstage, it was a hit or miss, sometimes X26 PRO felt like bigger sounding, sometimes I had a better pin point location of all the notes with the Element X and other times I couldn’t spot a difference at all. If there is one, X26 Pro is maybe by a hair wider sounding from left to right, but only with live and well-mastered music. Reviewing DACs is a complicated process, as I am listening less and less often to my own setup and this comparison made me rediscover…my own DAC. I was excited this whole review, it indeed blown me away as X26 PRO really sounds like a high-end DAC from any point of view and it seems that my own unit sounds pretty much the same. How curious.If the scale of the music is important to you, being immersed in your music, having a very good placement of all the notes around you, then I just described one of the most impressive delta-sigma DACs I’ve tried of late. Before any listening, I needed to volume match them, since X26 PRO is outputting 5V on the XLR and Element X a weaker signal of 4.5V. For that I used a MiniDSP E.A.R.S. system and a 300-Hz sine wave. E.A.R.S. detected a difference of exactly 0.7 dB at the listening level of 85 dB with the Audeze LCD-4. Before listening, I volume matched them, I’ve used the same power cables, the same interconnect and USB cables for both devices.
As it was already written the X16 is capable of decoding MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) files via its Coaxial, AES, Optical and I2S inputs. Just to remind: MQA allows sound reproduction quality to be as close as possible to the original recording. The most important thing to know is that they sound more alike than different and I needed more than two hours to find all the smallest differences and nuances and this thought alone makes the X26 PRO an absolute steal.Usually, ESS-Sabre converters would never conquer my heart when it comes to midrange presence, depth and layering, but I guess with the right components, everything is possible. It put more meat on the bone to the usual ESS-Sabre silicon and a higher engagement factor.
Mid-band is lush and full and is where the Gustard scored really highly. Vocals were easy to decipher and there is a good insight into tone and detail in the performer’s voice. In lots of ways, I could see some describing this as an “audiophile” sounding DAC. In my loudspeaker setup, Element X worked by a hair better connected to a power amplifier, its dedicated line-amplifier circuit and its better volume control paid off, making my music tighter, more focused and better controlled, like I magically treated my room with invisible absorbers and diffusers. X26 PRO wasn’t that grippy, it lost some definition, contour and boldness, with it something was gently pressing the brakes. I would probably add a dedicated preamp later on if you plan on using it with a power amplifier. 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! You’re looking at a unit that was as detailed and transparent as the best DACs I put my hands on. It’s fully loaded with a lot of goodies, you get a full MQA decoder, the best Bluetooth codecs are on-board, plus it is a fully balanced DAC and preamplifier with endless possibilities. Gustard seems to be learning fast from their past mistakes, everything that wasn’t great on X16 was taken care of and for all of the reasons combined, X18 got a well-deserved silver award!At about 2.5 kilos or ~5.5 pounds, it’s considerably heavier than its competitors like Topping D90SE and SMSL M400. A heavier unit suggests that a linear power supply and a bigger capacitance are sitting inside, building confidence that I’m dealing with a serious unit. The biggest novelty is that Gustard ditched two ESS-Sabre ES9068AS silicon in favor of a single, but higher performing ES 9038 PRO DAC chip. As I have explained multiple times, ES 9038 PRO is a very interesting silicon, as it can work in mono, stereo or 8-channel mode with either current-mode or voltage-mode operation. Most ES9038 PRO designs that are I know of are using it in stereo configuration with a voltage mode operation due to a much lower cost and R&D. However, if you want to squeeze maximum performance out of it, this particular chip gives a lower total-harmonic-distortion, bypassing the IMD hump if current mode is being used. This configuration adds a lot to the cost, as a powerful I/V (current to voltage) conversion stage needs to be built around the ES9038PRO. The better the I/V conversion stage is = the higher precision can be squeezed from the DAC chip and the same can be said about its operation mode, as in mono mode it will output a higher dynamic range.
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. I just received my Gustard X16 today and installed the X16 v5 driver on my Windows 10 PC and everything is working perfectly and I was enjoying the beautiful sound from Gustard X16 with full volume control from my keyboard. It worked very well when I used it as a DAC + Pre in my setup, Reference 3 sounded as I know them to be, their transparent and speedy presentation remained intact. X26 PRO added some class-A warmth, a heavier and more impactful bass at the cost of being less grippy sounding to the Element X. When X26 PRO worked as a DAC only, leaving the preamp duties to a Benchmark HPA4, the sound became even more focused, more controlled and tighter in a way. The difference was quite minor and I feel that in a less revealing setup, you’ll be guessing if you need a dedicated preamp or not.VISHAY MELF high-precision low-temperature drift resistance is used in a key part of the analog circuit part However, they are still great when it comes to digital audio, their X16 DAC that I’ll be testing today is a road opener in many ways, it’s the first converter to use the newest ESS 9068AS DAC chips that have a full MQA decoder built-in. On paper, X16 seems like a high-performance modern DAC, wrapped in a fairly small aluminum enclosure with just a mid-fi price tag attached to it. Could this be the Holy Grail of digital audio, or this is this another flavor of the month? Let’s find out together. Headphone Amps: Benchmark HPA4, SparkoS Labs Aries, Flux Lab Acoustics FCN-10, SMSL SP400, Burson Soloist 3X, xDuoo XA-10 If what I’m searching for can’t be found on Qobuz, then I will be continuing my search on Tidal and after that on Spotify. When it comes to high-resolution MQA content, for now there are three services that will be offering such content: Tidal, Nugs.net and Xiami Music in China. Once you have a subscription to any of these, you’ll have access to a wide variety of MQA files that are released on a weekly basis. These files can go up to 24-bit and 96 kHz in resolution with the last bits of information stored in a lossy format.
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