GUSTARD - U26

Impressions:
Adding the Gustard U26 DDC to my chain via I²S (HDMI) has not altered the fundamental, organic tonality of my Gustard R26 DAC. Instead, it has served as an analytical cleaning mechanism for the incoming USB signal.

## 1. Pitch-Black Background & Lower Noise Floor
* Music is emerging from an absolute, pitch-black silence. Micro-details, background singers' (faint) vocals, trailing reverb notes, and faint room acoustics that were previously masked by digital noise are instantly standing out clearly.

## 2. Tighter, More Articulated Bass Transients
* The bass lines through this stack have lost all traces of "loose warmth" or "fuzziness". The low-end now hits, kick drums, and fast bass tracking are sounding sharper, faster, and physically tighter, bringing an immediate sense of rhythmic pace and drive.

## 3. Holographic soundstage Expansion
* The soundstage has expanded even further, creating a wider, deeply layered, and highly holographic 3D space. Instruments don't just sound like they are on the left, right, far left, or far right; I can pinpoint exactly where they sit in space sometimes even behind me. The space and layering are noticeably improved.

## 4. Erasing "Glare" from the Treble
* This is probably the most noticeable aspect for me. It's like the sound has stepped away from me a little, calmed down, and yet retained all its energy and details. The upper-mid frequencies and treble have lost their sharp, metallic glare without sacrificing any detail. Cymbals, female vocal sibilants, and string textures have flattened into a highly liquid, organic, and non-fatiguing presentation that blends beautifully with the R26's rich and analog flavour. Male vocals are more soulful with the minor modulations coming across very naturally.
NOTE: I never thought the Gustard R26-->Burson Soloist GT4 chain sounded sharp and mettalic in any way. Now that I have heard the Gustard U26-->Gustard R26-->Burson Soloist GT4 chain though, I understand the difference the U26 is making and hence, I am now calling the previous chain's sound "sharp and mettalic". This is something that would be difficult to unhear.

## The Final Verdict
I think of the Gustard U26 not as an equalizer that forces a new sound signature into my setup, but as a "sound cleanser". It has ensured that the donwstream hardware stack can operate at 100% of its technical capacity without being choked by a compromised/dirty source. Does it make a huge difference? No. Does it make some very meaningful differences where they matter? Absolutely yes.

I was using Gustard R26 with U18 DDC. U18 improves the performance of R26 when you have a good streaming source.

The story of U26 is completely different. Once you have U26 in the chain, the source quality doesn't matter much. You connect laptop usb or high-end streamer usb to it, It will output very stable i2s output for Gustard dacs.R26+U26 is phenomenal.

If you are someone who still believe bits are bits, you have long way to go till you understand about electrical noise and jitter.

U26 has exceptional clock inside so the jitter is lowest and galvanically isolates the usb.

Before you want to upgrade your dac, just try this U26.

Good luck.

WARNING, LONG POST REVIEW.

TLDR version:
I'm now in peace. This is an "extremely" transparent DDC that brings out the best in your DAC. Attached is a clip where my chain is able to play an 8 bit chiptune file from YouTube of all sources and "still" somehow makes voices and organs sound "real".

Long version:
I picked up my current DAC (A Gustard A22, also from HPZ) because I wanted Delta Sigma detailing while being R2R like in imaging.

I think I finally understand the true nature of "velvet sound". This is an extremely overlooked DAC by Gustard because the digital section leading upto the chip was very barebones as opposed to the current lineup.

It had a tiny little USB card for USB input and it was honestly nothing to write home about. But it had an excellent analogue section with Gustard's hybrid class A output stage.

What was astounding about this DAC was how well it performed vs other DACs when you compare them side by side getting inputs from the same DDC. I "never" imagined how much more it had to give because for the longest time, I never bothered upgrading DDCs. Gustard announcing the U26 came not a moment too soon. I was just about to pull the trigger on a Holo Red, I was really close to going the network route. The idea never sat well with me personally, it's too much processing and too many layers of packing and unpacking at both ends, "just" for better isolation from noise.

I've been over enough of Rob Watts' lectures on why external clocks are a terrible idea, especially if they are not a direct multiple of 44.1 and 48khz. Plus I like consuming media in several different ways and off several different devices. Not to mention (and this is something I discovered much later) how much I longed to get back to music I hadn't listened to for well over a decade thanks to audiophilia! (I grew up in the 90s watching a lot of classic anime, not all of those soundtracks are "audiophile" level.)

So did I get what I wanted?
For the first two or three days, I was astounded by how revealing this thing had gotten. There were obviously the shenanigans and descriptions attached to new gear so I won't bore you all to death repeating all that.

All these audiophile recordings that I was listening to, got better by 20%. Yeah sure. I get it.

Then a friend came over and tried some anime opening. Normally I have a habit of giving people rude awakenings regarding how badly their music is mastered, but to my shock, my system "came alive"! If audiophile recordings were 20%.. Non audiophile recordings were better a solid 200%!!!!! I didn't know what was going on.

Then I started to experiment. Yeah this thing was doing something different. For some reason, the U26/A22 combo was squeezing entire lemonade out of lemons! Even bad recordings started to have a "stage" with depth. As good as the audiophile content? Ofc not!! But enough to the point where they were now "more than enjoyable!". It crossed that threshold. And over the next several days, I felt the system starting to settle down in ways I could never dream. I was beginning to experience emotions listening to music from my childhood that I thought I completely left behind! It got progressively more "organic and lifelike" by the day.

I borrowed a friend's DAC for a bit. It was an R2R (I don't want to start wars here so I'm not naming which), it only takes input via SPDIF, my friend was astounded at how Apple Music was matching his expensive CD transport. But bad recordings didn't come to life the same way off that DAC. Which goes to show just how transparent the U26 is as a source. It allows the downstream DAC to perform at its absolute best!

More than a month has passed since the device has settled in and I still can't get enough of it, the emotions still flow.

I don't understand how this thing takes YouTube as a source off non bit perfect OS settings for what's supposed to be an 8 bit chiptune soundtrack for an old game from the mid 90s and it renders the full church organ and choir that almost sound real!