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To support the dual ES9038 Pro chipset, Gustard uses a Hybrid Discrete IV conversion circuit, which provides independent parallel circuits to each chipset. It benefits noise control and improves the flexibility of chip settings. In particular, we were amazed by the power of the bass, sharp and precise in every song heard. In the mid and high frequencies, the naturalness of the stringed instruments and voices gave details, brilliance and emotion definitely above the average price and also of the other ESS-Saber DACs. Treble is the standard ESS Sabre affair, without the usual glare and brightness associated with this chipset. It goes sky high, there are as many details as you please, it just breathes in the treble. You will not find nasty pre or post-ringing in the treble. Its timing its perfect and it never appeared as harsh or bright sounding to me. The interesting part is that X26 PRO was always connected to a Benchmark HPA4 that is straight as a line and doesn’t awake as many emotions, it can even transform several sources into bright ones, but that never happened, even for a micro-second with the Gustard unit. I’m glad to tell you that it pairs very well with lean and linear setups, you can easily use it bright setups too. It worked with warm sounding setups, I personally used several Class-A amplifiers and it worked great with all of them. Keep in mind that you can also alter its voicing a little bit, by the help of its digital filters and NOS modes. 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.
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! There are two independent linear power supplies with their own transformers and hence the two voltage switches and hefty weight of the unit. At the heart of its digital processing stays a flagship and out of print AK4499 DAC chip. This is their best and most premium converter. AKM Technology could resume the manufacturing of this silicon in a couple of years, but until that happens AK4499 is still a super-limited DAC chip, making Singxer SDA-6 PRO a limited-edition unit. Singxer has plenty of experience with this particular brand, as they used the velvety sounding chips in their first and second-generation DACs – SDA-1 and SDA-2. I think a "normal" voltmeter on AC mode should be ok measuring a sinewave at 100/120 Hz, if you have a scale with enough resolution.In a headphone setup it was mostly connected to a Ferrum OOR + Hypsos or to a Burson Soloist 3X GT, driving several high-end planar-magnetics 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 Bluetooth is a nice add-on feature. The sound quality is not comparable with the traditional connections, but it is really convenient to use X26Pro as a DAC/Preamp and connect it with active monitors. It supports LDAC up to 24-Bit/96kHz, as well as aptX, SBC, and AAC. In this review, I did not evaluate the Bluetooth sound quality in the sound analysis.
In the first room you can spot two encapsulated 50W linear transformers, which are on the heavier side. You can certainly feel their weight on that part of the case. One transformer is powering the analog section and the second one the digital section, which is an amazing design decision, something I already saw on X26 PRO and R26. PCM Filter – you can select a desired digital filter, built-in in the DAC chip itself. There are 7 filters to play with, but the sound difference is slight at best. I’m using Fast Linear. X26Pro is the newest modified/upgraded version of X26 which was announced in 2019. Unfortunately, I was not able to get my hands on X26 before it is discontinued. But according to Huang (the lead designer and founder of Gustard), X26 Pro has all-around improvements over X26. In this review, I will mainly focus on evaluating the sound performance of X26 Pro.DSD Direct – Two positions are provided: OFF (default) or ON. Enabling it will disable internal DSD processing, sending the raw DSD stream into the DAC chips for a clearer and faster sound. Be warned! After enabling this feature, the volume cannot be controlled, outputting full power into your amplifiers. Don’t use this feature while using power amplifiers that can’t control the volume output. In the end, A26 covered the frequency response in full, adding more energy in the bass and midrange while marginally lowering it in the treble.
Needless to say, I am happy to give my strongest recommendation for Gustard DAC-X26. If you want a DAC that produces guaranteed transparency to your source content, you are there. 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! DACs: SMSL SU-10, SMSL M500 MKIII, Gustard R26 Discrete, Gustard X18, Topping D90SE, Chord Electronics DAVE, Gold Note DS-10 Plus & PSU-10 EVOWhat 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.
NOS Mode: 2 positions – OFF and ON. On 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 modeAt the heart of its digital processing are staying two flagship ES9038 PRO 8-channel DAC chips of ESS Technologies. While newer ES9039 PRO chips are already on their way to audio designers around the globe, spec wise…these aren’t any better. The only difference is an included MQA decoder and a lower power consumption, meaning that both chipsets will coexist as flagship ESS-Sabre DAC chips. SMSL has a ton of experience with this exact silicon that’s already powering plenty of their devices. However, an absolute first in SMSL’s portfolio is using two DAC chips, from which all 16-channels have been used, paralleling 4 channels into a single one for a much lower harmonic distortion & channel crosstalk and for a marginally better dynamic range. SMSL never did this before…and that somehow excites me to the core. And the general experience in audio (almost entirely analog, rather than digital) that you get what you pay for. In the end, you can make it smoother or tubey sounding, or you can go with the cleanest and most detailed sound possible. It’s up to you to decide which tuning works best for you. Fast and impactful sounding, good transient response, although it wasn’t pounding that hard down low The X26 pro also features built in bluetooth with aptX HD and LDAC support, so you can use this wirelessly with minimal loss in fidelity compared to a direct connection.
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