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

Product Information

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. Besides, A26 supports MQA, and easy access to high-quality online streams, like Roon, UPnP, and HQPlayer NAA at present, and more protocols will be shown in near future. The least impressive sounding inputs were Optical and Coaxial, I found them boring sounding at all times, transforming it from 3D to 2.5D sounding. The resolution took another hit and it seems that both inputs won’t accept MQA, native DSD, or 32-bit PCM material. Yikes! I initially tossed aside the USB cable provided without taking a proper look. It took me a while but when I noticed that the terminations are gold plated and the wire has a substantial gauge, I thought it was worth a try nonetheless.

I haven’t tried any other DACs utilizing the AK4191 and AK4499EX tandem nor have I come across the concept itself being used widely. So, the advantage of going to such lengths seems a bit trivial for me at the moment but I understand that the A26 doesn’t deserve anything less. This will be a short chapter as it’s a very simple one. If you want to squeeze maximum performance out of it, then you will need to use its internal streamer via Ethernet. I used it via Roon, as I didn’t need to install additional third-party apps, I didn’t need to configure anything in particular and this is what I used the most while writing this article. It works with UPnP protocols, with HQ Player NAA and I’m told that additional protocols will be added in the future. Details on the A26 may appear grainy when compared to the silkier performance of the Qutest. Taking it as an advantage, the Qutest gives vocals better width and life to the upper midrange. The A26 sounded just a little bit thinner in this area.The remote doesn’t have any hidden or special functions relevant to day-to-day use. As a convenience factor to the a26, it only indicates that the DAC is suitable for long-distance setups. Trying something different, I also used the ATH-ADX5000 with a Violectric V281. I prefer this pairing for easier listening since it complements the unaggressive A26 without ending up as too mellow.

In simpler words, what a single AK4499EQ chip could do a few years ago was moved into three separate devices, two AK4499EX (for a fully balanced signal), and a single AK4191 used as a premium delta-sigma modulator. Since every chip does its own thing never to be bothered with additional tasks, the noise floor and distortion lowered, the sound became faster and more accurate than ever before. More on the grills adorning the sides, the silver color option does help it pop more. And, the almost closed-off internals of the A26 breathes through the slim slits carefully hidden on its upper portion.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. 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. Fresh power tubes and NOS driver tubes for my Trafomatic Primavera arrived a few days ago and as you can imagine, headphone listening came first but don’t you worry, it was used in an equally impressive stereo setup, getting a complete picture about its performance. Utilizing another EarMen product, I connected the A26 to the EarMen CH-Amp together with my Audio-Technica ATH-ADX5000. The A26 did an amazing job at quelling the shoutier regions and filling in the weight of the two rather thinly voiced pieces of equipment I paired. While not always the case, one observation I had climbing up the ladder to more expensive DACs is that the stage becomes less about the dimensionality as they get better in their disappearing act.

Headphones: (i) Martin Logan Mikros 90 , Ultrasone PRO 780i , Beyerdynamic Amiron Home , Neumann NDH-30 , Ultrasone Edition Eleven ; (ii) Audeze MM-500 . Both devices used as DACs offer a bit of flexibility to the sound just to tease. The A26 however is more detail oriented which becomes its crucial advantage if all the bells and whistles of the NEO Stream can be ignored.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.

The bass quantity coming out of the A26 is deep and expansive and it plays pretty tight with the rest of the frequency. Its sway is more like a cornerstone holding everything together plus it has a slightly bouncy timbre to lessen the seriousness. 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. If you're going to Windows WSL route, follow this to mount Gustard R26 to your WSL. Otherwise, just mount your R26 using mount on Linux.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!