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Its treble performance felt right from the get go, it was clean, defined, very extended even past top octave. It never jumps ahead of that low-end and midrange, but it sometimes asks for more attention from the listener. I don’t find it rash or bright, or elevated, but sometimes it might appear as metallic or slightly fake sounding. Cymbals were really snappy; snare drum hits were quite impactful and the tambourines had the right amount of shimmering. It had everything I wanted from my treble, except for nasty brightness which I cannot stand for long. Brightness: has 8 brightness positions, none of them is completely dimming its display. The lowest position worked great at night though. 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. 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 I tested it in a high-end loudspeaker setup and also in several headphone setups. When I used it in the living room, I’ve tried it as a DAC + Pre unit and then only as a DAC, leaving the preamp duties to the Topping Pre90 or to a Benchmark HPA4. I’ve used a Keces S300 power amplifier, that was driving a pair of KEF Reference 3.
BT Power: SELECTED or ALWAYS. Self-explanatory, leave it at Selected if you are not using the BT input that often. 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. 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.Bluetooth 5.0 DAC: GUSTARD DAC-X16 is equipped with Bluetooth chip CSR8675, supports Bluetooth 5.0, supports LDAC, AAC, SBC, APTX multiple audio formats. 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. Oh my, this is where it gets interesting. I don’t think I have experienced such an overkill oversampling DAC so far. First of all, the entirety of its digital and analog sections was built in a dual mono configuration.
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. The
Wireless Performance
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. Headphone Amps: Ferrum OOR + Hypsos, Flux Labs Acoustic Volot, Enleum AMP-23R, Burson Audio Soloist GT, Trafomatic Primavera, several Topping, SMSL & Gustard units
U18 revitalized the X18, it added more soul into my tunes, while improving every single aspect that was good but not great. For all of the reasons combined, I decided continuing my review with the U18 in place and if you’re still using a PC as a transport, then this thing should be mandatory, it’s that good.The trebles on the EM6L are really well extended. They are very airy and detailed. However, the detailed trebles come with their cons too. As such, the EM6L is a bit sibilant. It also doesn't compare to the Xenns Top, which has very well extended, extremely detailed, and quality trebles but presents them in a controlled and smooth manner. Hence, it is not fatiguing or overwhelming during long sessions. The Top also has better technicality and separations than the EM6L or the Khan by a huge margin (understandably as they belong in different price ratios). So the trebles sound better on the Xenns Top. The EM6L sometimes sounds fatiguing and piercing with treble-heavy songs. 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 less there are component on signal path, the best it is (except at very low volume). looking at the PCB Gustard have made a minimal classical perfect implementation. High-quality toroidal transformer, multiple sets of linear voltage regulators, and TI high-current ultra-low noise LDO chips used in key parts At about 2.5 kilos or 5.5 pounds, it is considerably heavier than its competition like the Topping D70S, D90 and SMSL M400. I have a bigger confidence in heavier devices and if we are talking about DACs, a heavy unit equals with a nice linear power supply and with a bigger capacitance for power storing and filtering. 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.It seems that as DAC only unit X26 PRO won several rounds, Element X won a few less, but most of them felt like a draw. As an outro for this comparison, I just found an upgrade path for Gustard A22 owners, for Topping D90 MQA, Aune S8, Soncoz SGD1, for all Matrix owners (except for Element X that is more or less the same), for Benchmark DAC3, Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ and SMSL M400 owners. X26 PRO performed like a true high-end DAC, brawling with the best there is, with a mid-fi price tag attached to it. Among modern DACs of the middle and high class, a very common approach with analytical, extremely informative character of reproduction, which each manufacturer tries to solve within their budget and circuit elements. It is curious that Gustard, apparently relying on his rich experience in creating audio components for audiophile, does not pursue super-analyticity: there is no super-detail, hyperscale and monstrous image of the music scene, there is no attempt to show every detail in all its glory. But when listening X16, you literally immediately understand that the sound is balanced, harmonious, everything is in place and everything is enough: details, space and temperament of performance. But in any bundle that we tested with X16, along with the elegant musicality, you can feel the signature style of the gustard.
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