Joined in 2023 
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63 About this deal
The USB-B input is associated with a high-performance XMOS XU216 chip. It supports PCM files up to 32bit 768kHz, DSD files up to DSD512 and 384kHz MQA files.
This is a good sounding and well-built DAC that takes up minimal real estate and sounds very good when it’s partnered with the right music. I certainly don’t think it will be all things to all people but for those who like this kind of presentation, it will be a big hit! AT A GLANCE The DACMan himself will give you that it’s a very detailed, transparent and noise-less sounding DAC, it is extremely clean sounding, easily fighting with some of the nicest units I’ve tried. However, when it comes to transmitting emotions while listening to music, when it comes to midrange presence, naturalness, warmth, layering, texture, soundstage, depth and bass slam, X16 doesn’t stand a chance versus their own X26 PRO, versus Matrix Audio Element X and X-Sabre Pro units and versus some other units. Headphone Amps: Benchmark HPA4, SparkoS Labs Aries, Flux Lab Acoustics FCN-10, SMSL SP400, Burson Soloist 3X, xDuoo XA-10 In a headphone setup, it was connected to its soul mate H16 balanced headphone amplifier, or to (much) higher performing units like Ferrum OOR + Hypsos and later on to the Enleum AMP-23R, 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!
HDMI I2S-H Pinout
The X16 is remarkably well constructed, and is a really robust piece of audio kit that offers an astonishingly good level of connectivity at its modest price point. For excellent recordings in general, I like almost everything from Reference Recordings (Keith Johnson & Co). I can share a list of Tidal links if anybody is interested. No MQA, all RedBook Now, this is just entirely speculation on my part, and I haven’t gotten a definitive answer from PS Audio yet, but at the time when the SGCD was there awaiting a new circuit board, it wasn’t alone. I was told that there were multiple units waiting for boards, which were in short supply due to the pandemic. I was offered the option – which they didn’t really recommend – of getting a repair of the existing board. That would have involved basically stripping elements from the existing board to isolate the problem, then replacing them with new parts in an attempt to restore the board to its previous condition. My alternative was to wait for a fully-assembled replacement board, which was definitely my first choice. And after hearing such a marked improvement in the sound quality of my renewed SGCD, I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps my new board came equipped with an upgraded ESS DAC chipset – or possible other improvements. Why : 1/ there is one dedicated ship for each canal that cannot be effect less on crosstalk. 2/ there is one embeded linear regulator, INSIDE each chip for the first time on ESS Sabre. A critical step on each Dac implementation is the chip supply quality. Here it cannot be better. If you are looking for an instrument grade DAC, that is as detailed and transparent as the best converters I’ve tried, that is straight as a line in the frequency response, that will not beautify and sugar coat your music in any way, then X16 seems to be an excellent choice.
While I was taking the time to explore oversampling via Roon, I thought it might be instructive to take a listen to some MQA titles with the X16, which is made easy by Roon’s built-in access to Tidal. After switching everything in the Euphony System to the Gustard’s USB protocol, I proceeded to sample from a number of MQA offerings. The available selection of MQA titles has recently exploded on Tidal – there’s a boatload of both mainstream and obscure albums across many musical genres. I mostly chose albums I’m very familiar with in either strictly CD-quality versions or higher-resolution PCM versions. I won’t go into detail here, but right out of the gate, 1) I wasn’t completely blown away by any MQA titles I listened to, and 2) I sensed that something in the overall sound quality wasn’t quite right – I can’t put my finger on it, but it didn’t sound completely natural to me. This is going to require much more exploration in the very near future, but suffice it to say, for now, I’m still on the fence regarding MQA. X18 together with U18 were used in a headphone setup first and then in a stereo setup. In the living room I’ve tried it as a DAC only unit, leaving the preamp duties to a Ferrum OOR + Hypsos, followed by two Benchmark AHB2 power amplifiers used in mono mode driving a pair of KEF Reference 3 standfloor loudspeakers.For example, if a use an audio sample with white noise, there is a clear difference in the highs in benefit of Nuforce DAC-9, with much more gain and hissing. Wonder which device is more flat in the audio spectrum, but I would guess DAC-9 is exaggerating in the upper top (I say this, because sometimes the sibilance’s of voices can be quite pronounced, as if the singer was spitting at our face, literally!!). If however I select in the amplifier the correspond input, without any music reproduction (be careful), and increase the volume to the limits of the amplifier, there is an audible hiss coming from the DAC-9, while from the X16 just a dead silence (this was done with balanced outputs). Amazing this rejection of noise in the X16 outputs. I don't have this issue with my Topping DX3 Pro (1st version) in DAC mode. I can fully control the DX3 Proi volume from my Logitech Mac keyboard. Very strange that this issue occurs on Mac OS, not on Windows 10. Maybe Gustard should release a driver for Mac users to solve this issue. NOS MODE: 2 positions, it’s either ON or OFF. In OFF position it will work as a regular oversampling DAC and with 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 The source used for the testing was a Raspberry Pi 4 with a HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro board for better digital quality through coaxial and optical outputs, running Volumio (Virtuoso subscription), using local samples files and TIDAL. Unfortunately the MQA streams some times are not correctly identified and play as normal PCM files using optical and coaxial inputs. Could also be a problem with Volumio, as to get DSD proper flagged I need to select DSD over PCM – DoP, but no option for MQA. Off course DSD is limited to DSD64 on these inputs. Thus, to fully assess the potential of MQA and DSD, the USB output was used most of the time. When I removed the Ferrum OOR and let it work as a DAC and preamp, some naturalness went down by a notch, there was less oomph in the bass, but everything else as transparency, speed and control of the drivers remained intact. I played the guess game with and without the Ferrum OOR and there was a difference, but it as wasn’t a big to warrant purchasing separately an expensive preamplifier. The difference was definitely there, but it wasn’t as big as it was the case with entry to mid-level DACs.
For this comparison my weapon of choice was the Hifiman HE1000SE, which seems to be extremely detailed and transparent, more so than my loudspeakers and more so to the Audeze LCD-4, Kennerton Wodan and Erzetich Phobos, so it was natural using some detail-oriented headphones. DSD Filter: has 4 positions, 47K, 50K, 60K and 70K. You are selecting the cut-off frequency for DSD files. If you want a crispier sound, go for 70K and if you like a smoother top-end, go with 47K. I felt it at 47K – its default position 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. An Altera MAX II FPGA will be isolating the I2S signal, reshaping it by removing traces of jitter introduced by galvanic isolators and last, but no least, a 20W linear transformer will be providing clean and regulated power to all its circuitry.
Dual ES9068AS DAC
Considering all of the above, I didn’t know what to expect out of X18, but after getting to know it better for about a week, X18 started showing me its beautiful side. I’m glad to report that X18 sounds closer to X26 PRO than to X16, as there’s considerably more impact in the lowest octaves, the sound stretches wider and instead of a bi-dimensional sound field, X18 delivers an airier and deeper presentation. Almost everything that I disliked about the X16, felt improved on X18. There was a higher engagement factor, a nicer impact in the lowest octaves, a smoother vocal performance and a warmer overall tonality, while retaining the same cleanness, ultra-revealing nature and noiseless presentation. While system matching was a crucial aspect on X16, that’s no longer the case with X18 – it felt effortless sounding, as if the amp that followed was less important. 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. Neil Landstrumm’s Busy Making Videos has plenty going on in the mix and the X16 copes very well with everything that is thrown at it. However, I just feel that the music isn’t as exciting as it should be – something is missing that gives my other DACs the edge in this regard. Don’t get me wrong, this is not terrible in any way and I could be well happy listening to the Gustard forever, but it’s not got that little bit of sparkle that sets great kit apart from the herd. I got this feeling throughout my time with the Gustard – not missing anything but not really falling in love with it either. Headphone Amps: Ferrum OOR + Hypsos, Flux Labs Acoustic Volot, Enleum AMP-23R, Burson Audio Soloist GT, Trafomatic Primavera, several Topping, SMSL & Gustard units I did test the NOS mode ON with over sampling X0, X2, X4 with Roon, however i found that none of us are better than the NOS mode OFF.
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