Joined in 2023 
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63 About this deal
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. In my loudspeaker setup, Element X worked by a hair better connected to a power amplifier, its dedicated line-amplifier circuit and its better volume control paid off, making my music tighter, more focused and better controlled, like I magically treated my room with invisible absorbers and diffusers. X26 PRO wasn’t that grippy, it lost some definition, contour and boldness, with it something was gently pressing the brakes. I would probably add a dedicated preamp later on if you plan on using it with a power amplifier. Headphone Amps: Ferrum OOR + Hypsos, Flux Labs Acoustic Volot, Enleum AMP-23R, Burson Audio Soloist GT, Trafomatic Primavera, several Topping, SMSL & Gustard units 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. Sending music from a smartphone that was using streaming services as Qobuz and Tidal worked as a charm and LDAC codec sounded almost indistinguishable to its wired connections. Bottom line is that X26 PRO performed amazingly well in here, rising the bar yet again and becoming a new benchmark when it comes to Bluetooth receivers.
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. Gustard proved multiple times that good digital audio runs through their veins. X26 PRO was a huge surprise that I didn’t see coming, outperforming pretty much every oversampling delta/sigma DAC I’ve tried at my place…except for one unit that I’m using for quite some time now. The more I was listening to their older units like A22 and A18 DACs, it became clearer that Gustard has everything they need to succeed. Their frequency response feels pretty much the same, with the exception that big guy has more contrast and saturation, there is more bass, more midrange, more treble and a lot more naturalness can be felt while listening to it. X26 is a dynamics beast, always pressing the gas pedal. X16 is a shier sounding unit, you hear the same frequency response, the same footprint, but with a very different attitude.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. However, on chilled jazz and the likes of the Café del Mar series of records, it’s a really good match with that Sunday morning come-down feel to it. I have to say that if I didn’t listen to so much fast-paced techno etc then this would have got a better score than it will get. Its side plates are rounded and the front plate is rounded at the edges, I’m swapping electronics on a daily basis be it amplifiers or DACs and sometimes they might touch each other. With rounded cases, I’m more confident that I’m not going to see scratches or dents anytime soon. Listening to the chilled jazz of Paolo Fresu and Lars Danielsonn’s Summerwind record it’s very easy to fall into the music and be seduced by the chilled nature of the presentation. And I think this gets to the crux of what the character of this DAC is all about – on tunes where I’m looking for energy, vitality and pace I was left wanting, on more chilled music I found myself drifting into the tunes and getting right into it. The question then would be “Is the X16 a bit boring?” and I suppose it sort of is if I’m honest. That’s a bit unfair, actually, and as opposed to boring I think a better way to describe its character is chilled and undemanding. I cannot put a finger on anything that bothers me really with this unit, the soul of the music is here, it created emotions that only R2R units could easily unearth from my music, it has the soundstage of serious AKM designs, it has their flow, while retaining the best virtues of ESS-Sabre designs like detail retrieval, transparency, cleanness, speed and thunder like impact. Can I really complaint about anything wrong in this unit? I probably can’t.
BT Power: SELECTED or ALWAYS. Self-explanatory, leave it at Selected if you are not using the BT input that often. AS9068 is a current output chip, meaning that a current to voltage conversion (I/V) stage will be needed. Thankfully Gustard went with warmer and more natural sounding OPA1612 op-amps, instead of the regular LEM49860 they are using in A18 and A22 DACs. OPA’s are working much better with ESS chipsets and Gustard seems to be on the right path with them. You can access its user menu by pressing the Menu button on the remote or by a long press to the button on the far right. Once you do that, a user menu like this will appear:
Tech Highlights
And of course, Gustard X16 can receive audio streams via Bluetooth. Board equipped with a Qualcomm CSR8675, this chip supports the SBC and AAC codecs, but above all aptX, aptX LL, aptX HD and LDAC for a stable transmission and a more than convincing reproduction. 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. However, they are still great when it comes to digital audio, their X16 DAC that I’ll be testing today is a road opener in many ways, it’s the first converter to use the newest ESS 9068AS DAC chips that have a full MQA decoder built-in. On paper, X16 seems like a high-performance modern DAC, wrapped in a fairly small aluminum enclosure with just a mid-fi price tag attached to it. Could this be the Holy Grail of digital audio, or this is this another flavor of the month? Let’s find out together.
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. X16 has a clean front panel with just a simple monochrome OLED screen in the middle and a nice volume wheel on the far right. If you want to use it in the DAC mode, select maximum volume of 0 dB and if you will be using it as a DAC and Preamp, you can choose the desired volume level via that remote control or via its volume wheel. In the middle of the volume wheel a button is located, a short press on it will select your desired digital input and a long press will engage its user menu, where additional setting can be found. Gustard is not forcing you to use the remote control in case you’ll want to change setting like digital filters, you can do that single-handedly, unlike Topping that is forcing to use its remote for advanced settings. IEMs: FiiO FH9, FH7, FA9, FA7S, FD7, Meze Rai Penta, LittleDot Cu KIS, Kinera Skuld, 7Hz Timeless & others
HDMI I2S-H Pinout
Before any listening, I needed to volume match them, since X26 PRO is outputting 5V on the XLR and Element X a weaker signal of 4.5V. For that I used a MiniDSP E.A.R.S. system and a 300-Hz sine wave. E.A.R.S. detected a difference of exactly 0.7 dB at the listening level of 85 dB with the Audeze LCD-4. Before listening, I volume matched them, I’ve used the same power cables, the same interconnect and USB cables for both devices. Another really superb recording that I reviewed in Copper Issue 144 is jazz pianist and vocalist Patricia Barber's latest release, Clique. I've ripped the DSD layer of the SACD disc, and I also have the 32-bit/352.8 kHz DXD files. I had the following to say about this excellent release then: " Clique is an exceptional recording; one of those rare events where all elements of the creative process combine to yield a record of perfect performances and technical brilliance. Clique is a truly outstanding listening experience." The DXD file is easily the finest-sounding digital music file on my entire music server, and it reached a new level of magnificence when played with the Gustard X16 in my big system.
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