GUSTARD - U18

The R26 on its own is decent but nothing amazing. As compared to Burson Composer or even a Topping D30 Pro. It does the job well. And an issue is soft sibilance. Especially with dynamic driver headphones. For an R2R DAC, it does not roll off high treble at all. Its ultra revealing. You don’t feel you are lacking anything with this DAC but at the same time its not wowing you. Especially when the Burson DAC has such a crispness to it and no soft sibilance.

However when you plug in the Gustard U18 DDC, not just the R26 but also the Burson DAC are massively upgraded. Instead of buying a new DAC, I would strongly suggest look into a DDC. I am getting lot more definition of notes. It feels I am going down to the surface of the instruments. Bass definition and oomph has come on leaps and bounds. This DDC (I don’t know if other DDCs will have same effect) just seems to enhance the music and sounds. I can literally feel it has super charged the audio signal and everything is bolder & more vivid, and the point where you would hear distortion is pushed higher in the volume range.

Honestly it was difficult to appreciate the R26 on its own, but after U18 its best qualities are very apparent. The sound stage is wide but more importantly, it is arranged in a detailed and precise manner. Sounds which earlier appeared to come from a general area, or even one channel, seem like they are emanating from precise points within each channel. The soundscape is very sprawling and nothing is bleeding onto another. This is apparent in all tracks but on tracks which are well recorded, this is absolutely wonderful. Also a fun headphone like Stellia gives a good resolution with this, but a proper audiophile headphone like Audio Technica R70X is where all these above qualities of R26 are easily apparent. (Re R70X, I would say not only is it miles better than HD650, it deserves to be where HD800S is).

The R26 now has a crispy timbre to it, which is close to Burson’s timbre. The kind of timbre that usually comes from Planar Magnetics & Beryllium drivers, which Dynamic drivers like HD800S or even R70X, cannot produce.
Whereas earlier there was soft sibilance which sounds fuzzy, now there is a slight brightness. Of course a planar will sound even more incredible & crispy on it. I cannot wait to pair this DDC enhanced DAC with the Susvara.

Regarding the Burson’s upgrade because of U18 - the bass is phenomenally taut, which it struggled with earlier. (So much so it made me doubt the Susvara’s bass performance). The clarity & definition are also enhanced in the same manner for the Burson DAC too. Crispness is off the charts. There is zero sibilance. The soundstage is still blurred as compared to R26.

All my headphones & speakers are genuinely upgraded with the Gustard U18 DDC.

I would not say I agree with the theory behind why DDCs improve sound - timing information & jitter reduction etc. (I am playing 256kbps AAC at 44.1 khz Apple Music on Windows PC) I just feel that the DDC is boosting the signal and giving you a level of clarity which you don’t expect to hear. Simply increasing the volume of a DAC or Amp, sans DDC DOES NOT give this feeling of enhanced clarity and definition. Doing so increases volume but also noise & distortion. Which is not apparent on its own originally, but as compared to DDC, it certainly is!

The 1 thing in audio that wowed me the most and had the biggest impact on me is Hifiman Susvara (सुस्वरा). Gustard U18 is definitely the second best.

I still strongly feel, its the job of the DAC which the DDC is doing. Companies want to make multiple products so they can charge high for each one, rather than an all in DAC(source). But there has got to be some DACs which already have this mechanism built in and don’t need DDC. Maybe the Chord or Holo Audio DACs. But for most others, this is absolutely brilliant.

A good enough DDC. Serves it's intended purpose.

It elevated my r26 performace to next level. Now i am looking for c18 . I honestly wanted to just try this but the combo is exceptional. Biggest performance boost

I read some good comments about Singxer U6 interface. As a result I started exploring various Interfaces in the market and read some reviews. By chance I came across Gustard U-18 on a forum. Gustard was latest interface to come compared to others which have been here for few years including Matrix and Denafrips. So just wanted to try Gustard out. I must admit anyone listening to digital audio and having a DAC owe it to himself to add an Intetface like Gustard U18 rather than upgrading a DAC. I can say with confidence that you will get 15 to 20% improvement in performance. Also in Gustard you get all options of digital out puts including I2s , XLR, RCA,Optical and BNC in and out which I don’t think others are giving.
Also it is very reasonably priced. I love this U18 and will recommend to all DAC users.

GUSTARD - U18

Great product