GUSTARD A26 DAC MQA Dual AK4499EX AK4191 With Streamer/Renderer XMOS DSD512 PCM768K MQA384K IIS Balanced Audio Decoder Black

Product Information

There is no digital passthrough in the A26 so only analog signals come out. The measured dynamic range is >127dB and the THD+N is <=0.0001% which are both respectable. Connected to a Trafomatic Primavera or Enleum AMP-23R whilst driving a pair of Hifiman Susvara, I felt massive shifts in dynamics happening in between my earlobes, getting a punchier and a livelier sound, as if describing a bass-heavy set of headphones. Symbolico’s Perceiving All ( Qobuz / Tidal) is a masterfully crafted album for the 21st-century audiophile, pushing dynamics higher and making me curious about the sound placements happening all around while providing lightning-fast decays of the notes. Gustard A26 together with Enleum’s AMP-23R and Hifiman’s Susvara were firing machine-gun bass notes, sending my earlobes into a non-stop flip-flap fiesta. With R26, I could catch my breath and relax my mind in between passages, but with A26 it felt like an act of self-punishment, constantly bombarding my hearing apparatuses with energy-filled sounds that were coming from everywhere. A26 was smaller sounding and you can feel that music emanated from a nearer inception point versus the R26, ultimately getting a faster decay and better control of the drivers. With all that said, the transient response guy won’t be side-grading his R26 with an A26, as the former still has plenty of life in it, hiding a few aces under its sleeve which will be revealed later into the game.

Another heavy rival from Gustard, A26, comes out after the top-ranking R26! Let's take closer look at this new DAC! A26 utilizes dual flagship D/A chip AK4499EX, and AK4191 modulator for solid performance. With an independent power supply and grounding for each channel, separate digital-analog architecture eliminates interferences from the beginning. A26 seems much closer to DAVE as opposed to R26, always getting a highly detailed, yet organic sound that people are usually chasing. In my main headphone setup, A26 was connected to a Trafomatic Primavera or Enleum AMP-23R – which I consider to be the absolute best tube and solid-state headphone amplifiers, driving all sorts of headphones, but mostly high-end ones. Hifiman Susvara was used the most part, followed by Meze Elite, Kennerton Rognir and Sennheiser HD800S. A26 has built-in independent regulators with various stages of bypass capacitors that can avoid all interference.

K2 Clock

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. It doesn’t mean the A26 doesn’t have a heart for chord cutters. Set it up with a LAN cable and you’ll unleash one behemoth of a streaming machine. That is if you use platforms like ROON and the limited amount of service the A26 supports for now.

I will skip their specs and looks, focusing on their feature set and sound performance. Both units have been tested in headphone and stereo setups, I used the same power cables and interconnects. I didn’t need to re-adjust their voltage output, as both are providing 5V volts at full power. The nuance and control of the Gustard A26 over the entire frequency range is but a tiny portion of what makes it a compelling DAC. With a cleaner interface and a slight price advantage, the delta-sigma twin of the R26 is in it to conquer the segment. As a twin to the R26, the accessories provided are practically the same. There is a remote, power cable, USB-B cable, warranty card, and a minidisc. By default, it will automatically dim the central OLED display after a few seconds while waiting for a command. The touch controls on either side will remain active and not get affected by the screen saver. The final difference was felt in the frequency response. Imagine looking at a beautiful photo made by a renowned artist on a high-end film camera and then comparing it with a sharp high-resolution digital photo. This is what I felt when comparing both units. A26 felt sharper sounding, with notes popping in and out faster. With all that being said, R26 was always beautiful sounding and quite magical as well. It can work better with bright recordings & electronics. A26 will spread its wings with neutral or warm-sounding upstream equipment, while R26 can work with all and everything. The colors were more vibrant on R26, getting a more relaxed treble delivery along the way, something that A26 was doing to a lesser degree. I still find A26 quite velvety sounding especially when put against smaller devices, but there wasn’t as much refinement as it was via R26.Chord however got more involved when they opted to custom code an FPGA-based XC7A15T chip to their standards. Peer into the viewing glass of the Qutest and the Xilinx module can be appreciated. Since these are quite long and there are several comparisons mixed along in the A26 review, I have extracted what I found to be the most important sonic descriptions of the two DAC's. (Underscore and bold by me.)

A26 is the flagship DAC coming from Gustard, and it’s a mighty good one too. Up until recently, I wasn’t a big fan of Gustard DACs, but their latest R26 definitely changed that in a big way. It was the first R2R DAC entry from Gustard and it was nothing short of stunning. Gustard A26 comes as a part of the same high-level tier but uses the flagship Asahi Kasei DAC chip instead of the R2R ladder. What does this mean for the sound and which one should catch your attention? Keep reading. Build and Connectivity Is -00 dB etc, the range that I use to control volume if the DAC is connected directly to a power amp? And is 0 dB "silent" aka, no sound, Headphones: (i) Martin Logan Mikros 90 , Ultrasone PRO 780i , Beyerdynamic Amiron Home , Neumann NDH-30 , Ultrasone Edition Eleven ; (ii) Audeze MM-500 . I wont try and do an indepth review. The A26 does not dissappoint, it is excellent. It has a big soundstage, nice and wide, maybe not as deep as wide. Lots of detail and great bass. Voices are centered, but maybe a little closer than I am used to...probably just a smidge. The A26 is still burning in and by all accounts it needs 50 or 100 hours to really shine, but I think it sounds pretty dam good out of the box. If I had to nitpic the A26 could use a metal remote, but really I dont care. The display is a little hard to read, but that is my failing eyesight. The build feels great and it has some weight. whereas ranging from -01 dB.....-10 dB......-20 dB is increasingly louder? If so, why isn't more dB's louder, as I would 'intuitively' think it would be?

Late last year, AKM released a duo of flagship chips to attain complete separation of digital and analog circuitry which found a place inside the A26. LPF is specifically designed for the AK4499EX using discrete devices. The final parameters of the circuit are adjusted with subjective listening. Different from ICs, discrete circuits provide the possibility to control every detail in sound and performance. But the parasitic effects introduced huge challenges to the development experience and the device's quality.

There is an improvement in texture when inspecting closely the midrange of the A26 over the NEO Stream. Having less width to its vocal presentation the Gustard DAC does open the scene a bit better. Just like what I said in the beginning, choosing between this and the R26 can be a daunting assignment if you have no clear preference for DAC architecture. I wasn’t able to compare the two directly in this review but it is clear that this version is capable of going head-to-head with some higher-priced gear. Gustard A26 Technical SpecificationsIn 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. The problem with my setup is that before using that awesome-sounding Chord Ultima 5 power amp, I needed a dedicated preamp, I needed a DAC, and a wireless streamer that would feed it, hence adding a Chord Ultima 3 Preamp, a Chord DAVE and a Zidoo NEO Alpha wireless streamer. With Gustard’s A26, I’m killing three birds with a single stone as it already has a wired streamer, a high-performance DAC, and an adequate preamplifier section. I started using Roon last year, I added a Roon Nucleus working as a Roon Core, transforming the A26 into a plug-and-play wired streamer and DAC, controlling it via the Roon app installed on my smartphone. Gustard went overkill everywhere inside, including its capacitance is much higher than needed. I mean even several amplifiers are not using such a big capacitance for power filtering and storing. I’m spotting only Nichicon KG capacitors, those are currently the best Nichicon is making, also called as Gold Tone for their excellent performance characteristics. Making clean, detailed and fast sounding R-2R ladder DACs is extremely difficult, time consuming and costly, as usually these units need a custom FPGA that will solve of the errors made by the ladders. That’s precisely why technical sounding R-2R DACs are usually unobtanium material, sky being their limit price wise. A26 was smaller sounding and you can feel that music emanated from a nearer inception point versus the R26, ultimately getting a faster decay and better control of the drivers. With all that said, the transient response guy won’t be side-grading his R26 with an A26, as the former still has plenty of life in it, hiding a few aces under its sleeve which will be revealed later into the game.